Curley: This No. 1 feels different

This isn’t their first rodeo.

Gonzaga knows exactly what it’s like to be the No. 1 team in the nation. And when it happened the first time back in 2013 , the naysayers couldn’t wait to shake their heads and talk about strength of schedule and whole bunch of other numerologically based hoops hokum that sounds a little like one of those uncomfortable medical tests where you’re told not to eat the night before.

Today’s sports world is obsessed with all sorts of these crazy-insider stats that try to predict how a team will do when playing a road game on a Monday night, during a leap year, while in a state whose name ends in an “a.”

Everything has to be compared, quantified, processed and pasteurized.

But Monday’s top ranking by the Zags in both the AP and USA Today polls feels different. And not just here in Spokane/ Rob Curley , SR. More here.