Adjustments name of game

SEATTLE – So what’s your poison?

Try to rebuild without the greatest player from the greatest run in school history – a true once-in-a-lifetime supernova – with new recruits, a summer European tour and the daily brick-and-mortar of practice?

Or discover three hours before tipoff that your leading scorer, steadiest hand, most experienced player and general all-around glue is unavailable for a game that, frankly, you can’t afford to lose?

Of course, that question isn’t really about the whom – Stephen Curry or Matt Bouldin? – but about who’s left.

And on Saturday, the Gonzaga Bulldogs discovered there is daylight without Bouldin, even as their guests from Davidson continued in vain to search for life on the post-Curry planet in a 103-91 loss to the Zags in the seventh Battle in Seattle at KeyArena.

This isn’t something the Zags want to keep on proving. Dead ahead are shootouts with Duke, Oklahoma and Illinois before the beginning of the West Coast Conference schedule with road games at Portland and Saint Mary’s, all of which will be treacherous enough with Bouldin back in the lineup.

But when Gonzaga’s senior guard was still not fully recovered from cracking heads with Augustana’s Troy Rorer on Wednesday night, the Battle became a Referendum – even more than it already was.

In their last two meaningful outings – against Washington State and Wake Forest – the Zags’ OS had picked up some viruses. The inside power game so central to the run to the Maui Invitational title had developed a short. Offensive flow had become fitful. Point guard Demetri Goodson had misplaced either his go-pedal or his confidence, to the point that he was virtually wearing a “Don’t Guard Me” sign.

And above all, a team with multiple weapons was leaning more on the Bouldin Bailout.

“They were all,” said coach Mark Few, “a little subservient to Matt.”

No such option Saturday.

So the Zags re-established themselves on the low block – Elias Harris and Robert Sacre combining for 50 points (though not until 49 seconds remained did the 7-foot Sacre manage a rebound). Their break and sets were so efficient that they shot 64 percent from the field and got to the foul line a ridiculous 54 times. Steven Gray got back on track with a quiet 16 points, Grant Gibbs showed some Bouldin shades to his game with eight rebounds and some subtle passing and Bol Kong had a transition slash to the bucket that gave a hint as to what some of the fuss has been about.

But no one seemed to take the challenge to heart quite as dramatically as Goodson.

Yes, he committed six turnovers in an up-and-down game and he is not the assist machine expected of a traditional point guard, but his relentless whip was every bit as much responsible for Davidson’s helpless fouling as the big beasts. And in the end, they toted up 22 points for him, an unthinkable bounty.

“The last few games I didn’t really push the ball as well as I could – I was just thinking too much and too tentative,” Goodson said. “Sometimes when I come down I’m just looking for Matt and not really looking for my offensive game. Matt’s a great player and I will always look for him on the wing, but we have to be more than that, too.”

Obviously, not every team will engage the Zags in the running game that suits Goodson’s gifts, but even in those situations they can’t simply defer to Bouldin.

“And it happens, much like Matt relied on (Jeremy) Pargo and the older guys before him,” Few said. “You get comfortable and then you think that’s your only role, but it isn’t.”

Curiously, if the Zags missed Bouldin it was more on the defensive end – surrendering 91 points and 14 3-pointers to a team that had only topped 70 once against a Division I team.

“Just having him out there is a calming influence,” said Few, “because he’s become a pretty good defender.”

The Wildcats are now 2-7 B.C. – Beyond Curry, who riddled the Zags for 40 points in their 2008 NCAA tournament meeting. There is no player on the current roster remotely in his realm, though freshmen JP Kuhlman and Jake Cohen will be nice players. For the foreseeable future, just getting back to the NCAAs will be a worthy goal, never mind being “the next Gonzaga” as they were so anointed after that Elite Eight run in 2008.

“But they were good before Steph and they’ll be good again,” Few insisted. “It’s a program – very much like ours.”

The program won one Saturday. That’ll be even better news when Matt Bouldin is back.