Scouting Gonzaga’s potential path at the Battle 4 Atlantis with an assist from a former Inland Northwest coach

Gonzaga and West Virginia have met five times since 2012, but the Bulldogs won’t be too familiar with the version of the Mountaineers they’ll see Wednesday in an opening-round game at the Battle 4 Atlantis.

There’s another former Inland Northwest coach who’d be able to cook up a solid scouting report for West Virginia, however. If nothing else, he can provide information on a few of the main ingredients.

During his final season at Washington State, Kyle Smith, now six games and six wins into his tenure at Stanford, won 24 regular-season games and earned a No. 7 seed at the NCAA Tournament, sending the Cougars back to the Big Dance for the first time since 2008.

Awaiting WSU at the Omaha subregional was 10th-seeded Drake, a team led by first-year West Virginia coach Darian DeVries and son Tucker DeVries, now a senior wing who’s setting the tone for his father’s offense in Morgantown.

“They’re really well-coached and obviously they have a star player that really is unique,” Smith said during a phone interview last week. “He’s a 6-7 point forward that can score. Everything runs through him. Think Adam Morrison with more playmaking skills kind of player. Obviously a coach’s son.”

Smith and WSU snuck past Drake for a 66-61 opening-round NCAA Tournament win. Three days later, Darian DeVries accepted the job at West Virginia, joined soon by his son, a 21.5 point-per-game scorer last season who committed to the Mountaineers after a short stint in the transfer portal.

WVU owns a 3-1 record – three wins over mid majors and an 86-62 loss to Pitt – entering Wednesday’s matchup with third-ranked Gonzaga in the Bahamas.

“Haven’t seen them play at all so I don’t know, but I just know at Drake we were very fortunate to beat them,” Smith said. “We had to make some big plays and they just played so hard. Defensively, they were physical. At Drake they were just really well organized so I assume he’s headed down the same path at West Virginia.”

If each of the favorites come through with victories on Wednesday, Day 2 at the Battle 4 Atlantis would serve up a semifinal matchup between No. 3 Gonzaga and No. 14 Indiana.

Hoosiers guard Myles Rice was a two-year revelation for Smith at WSU, overcoming Hodgkin’s Lymphoma to average 14.8 points and 3.8 assists for the Cougars, keying their run to the postseason while earning All-Pac-12 First Team honors.

“I saw them actually play for the first time and they’re a little more deliberate, and they probably should be, their three frontcourt guys are ridiculous,” Smith said. “Myles’ push in transition really makes them (go). I think with the ball in his hands he’s as fast as anyone in the country and then he’s shooting the ball well. He’s such just a confident person and he’s shooting the ball really well to start the season.

“It doesn’t surprise me, he was such a stud.”

Rice is averaging one more assist per game while scoring at exactly the same clip. The junior guard’s 3-point percentage is up from 27% last season at WSU to 46% this season – something that doesn’t surprise Smith, who revealed Rice played with a torn ligament in his thumb last season.

“No surprise, his leadership skills are kind of running that team a little bit,” Smith said. “The longer it goes, the more I think he’ll be the guy that kind of organizes them.”

Two wins in two days for Gonzaga could set up a title-game tilt on Friday with former Zags assistant Tommy Lloyd, whose Arizona team slipped to No. 24 in the Associated Press rankings after a second consecutive loss, but should still be favored to come out of the other side of the Atlantis bracket.

Lloyd’s teams in Tucson have made two Sweet 16s and have lost 17 regular-season games over the last three years. The only coach to hand Arizona multiple losses last season? That’d be Smith, whose Cougars snagged a 73-70 home win earlier in the season before picking up another victory later on in Pac-12 play, edging the Wildcats 77-74 at the McKale Center.

“Forget about personnel, it’s style of play,” Smith said of Arizona. “They’re going to play the same way, they’re going to be running it down your throat. No one plays like them except for Gonzaga, even Gonzaga’s different, somewhat different. Just the pace, being able to stop them in transition and the duck ins, keep them out of the paint is the bottom line. Because they’re just going to be relentless paint touches, either through the post or off the dribble.”

Lloyd’s teams, like Mark Few’s at Gonzaga, are known for their frenetic offensive pace and 3-point shooting prowess, but the Wildcats have struggled from the perimeter so far, making 27% of their 3s this season after combining to go 10 of 46 (21%) in losses to Duke and Wisconsin.

“I don’t love their team so far as far as they don’t have the perimeter shooting that they probably would like or need,” Smith said. “And I’m shocked they’re not playing (Motiejus) Krivas more. Tommy knows what he’s doing.”

Based on his history at WSU and in the Pac-12, Smith is uniquely qualified to provide scouting reports on a few of the other players the Zags are guaranteed or likely to encounter this week.

On WVU’s Joseph Yesufu, the former WSU, Kansas and Drake guard who could come off DeVries’ bench Wednesday: “He’s got his hip (injury), so if he’s healthy, imagine a guy that comes off the bench that could just get it going. Very tough, awesome attitude and a good team guy.”

On Indiana’s Oumar Ballo, who’s played for three of the eight teams (also Gonzaga and Arizona) participating in the Bahamas this week: “He is what he is. He is a low-post problem, he wears you out. He protects the rim too and he’s a good rebounder. Their deal is, how to do they guard with him and they have to be more quarter court and keep him around the rim.”

On Indiana’s Kanaan Carlyle, an ex-Stanford guard who left the Cardinal before Smith was hired: “He seems like he’s struggling a little because he’s off the ball and they’re more deliberate. He seemed like he had a really, really green light as a freshman (at Stanford) and is capable, so he’s kind of playing through that and they’re trying to organize it.

On Arizona’s Caleb Love, the All-American candidate who’s been slow out of the gates this season: “I don’t think there’s any way to stop him necessarily, he’s only going to stop himself. I mean in the sense he can go 7 of 23, he goes 11 of 25 you lose. He hits five 3s, it’s hard.”

Smith, who faced Few’s teams on multiple occasions while coaching in the WCC at San Francisco and prior to that as an assistant at Saint Mary’s and San Diego, referenced the “old Gonzaga rule” while comparing the Zags and Wildcats.

“If you don’t have five post players, you’re not going to have a chance to win. That was our rule at Saint Mary’s, because they’re so fast, they keep pounding it inside, they’re going to get you in foul trouble,” Smith said. “So if you have to get to your third and fourth and possibly fifth inside guy, if you’ve got nothing there it’s like you should have a towel ready to throw into center court.”

Gonzaga’s task won’t be easy this week in a field consisting of power conference teams, but Smith expects it’ll be equally difficult for anyone looking to knock off Few’s team at the Battle 4 Atlantis.

“Unbelievable coaching job last year to get those guys to a Sweet 16,” he said “They were out of the tournament, he rallies them up and they add like three ridiculous pieces to that and everybody returns.”