Grip on Sports: For Zags, real skill will be blending talent

Tuesday: There have been rumblings up around Boone St. and Hamilton Ave.

You know, about how this may just be the best team Mark Few’s put together at Gonzaga. Looking over the roster, the talent certainly is there. But talent is only part of the equation. Solving for FF, as in reaching the Final Four, is always about the other variables.

The West Coast Conference held its media day yesterday in Los Angeles and the Zags were, surprise, picked to win the darn thing again. It’s a rare year when Few’s team isn’t, of course, but this may be as close to a lock as the Zags have had since, I don’t know, a couple of years ago.

Back when they were ranked No. 1 in the nation for a while. That team was somewhat of a surprise – who knew Kelly Olynyk would make such a leap?  – due to circumstances. This team has been a couple years in the making.  The pieces have been put together with painstaking care, from long-cultivated veterans to upper-class transfers to precocious freshmen.

The three returning starters, guards Kevin Pangos, Gary Bell and post Prezmek Karnowski – have played more than 50 games together. Transfers like Kyle Wiltjer (Kentucky), Byron Wesley (USC) and Eric McClellan (Vanderbilt, eligible later this season) have competed in the top conferences in the nation.

The freshmen – three guards, Silas Melson, Bryan Alberts and Josh Perkins, and post Domantas Sabonis – not only are athletic but have enough skill and savvy to contribute this season if needed.

The returning role players, like Angel Nunez and Kyle Dranginis, have been around long enough to know what’s expected of them. There is enough depth that practices have been intense and competitive (at least from what I’ve heard), which bodes well for the season.

That depth is a blessing – if anyone is injured, there are others waiting in the wings – and, can be, a curse – playing time will be at a premium. And that is the key.

The Zags have a solid core but are blending in a lot of new parts. A team isn’t just a collection of pieces. It is a group not only playing together but pulling together. The best teams have talent, sure, but, more importantly, have talented players who are willing to, at times, sublimate that talent for the greater good. And know when that is appropriate and when it isn’t.

That’s the challenge Few and his staff face. Blending this group of players into a team. Let’s face it. There is enough talent in McCarthey to win the WCC without that happening. But to reach the ultimate goal, a trip to Indianapolis in early April, that takes some players reaching beyond themselves, giving up some individual goals for team ones.

It’s always been that way from Phog Allen through John Wooden to John Calipari. Talent is key but selfless talent is crucial.

Thursday: Should I be happy for the Giants?

If not them, then their fans, many of whom are the nicest people you will meet? You don’t know how hard that is, folks. Let’s put it this way. If you are a WSU fan and the University of Washington won three football national titles in five years, how would you feel? Or, for you Gonzaga folks, what if Saint Mary’s took the NCAA basketball title three times between now and 2019? Would you want to be magnanimous? Or would you pout?

See, I was raised to love my mom, my country and hate the Giants. For years, the last part of that was pretty easy. They always lost, even when they were successful. No World Series titles in my lifetime. Then 2010 happened. OK, it was a fluke. I could live with that. But the ugliness happened again in 2012. The even-numbered success was going to stop. Then Madison Bumgarner happened. 

I’m not sure it’s a dynasty – it would seem there would have to be back-to-back titles sometime to qualify – but it is damn impressive. And how could you not appreciate Bumgarner?

The Giants have another banner to raise while the team of my youth, the Dodgers, flounders around trying to regain past glory. And the team of my middle and old age, the Mariners, just flounders.

So I vow to you. If either of them ever win a World Series title, I will never, ever – ever – act like a donkey, lording it over other team’s fans and making them feel sad. I will be the model of decorum, politely savoring the success, not the failure of anyone else. You believe me, right?