Dave Boling: Only the unimaginable seems to have the potential to derail this Zag basketball train

PORTLAND – To extract expectations from recent history, this Gonzaga basketball team should find huge success come March. Or the world will once again be struck by a global pandemic.

Either way there is great promise with this team, and also a hint of mystery around it.

A 91-82 win over Oregon Sunday at the Moda Center wrapped up the Zags’ nonconference play with a 12-1 record.

Consider this: The last three times the Zags entered conference play with no losses or one loss, they went to the national title game twice (2017, 2021), or saw their 31-2 season rudely truncated with a COVID-canceled NCAA Tournament (2020).

After this win, coach Mark Few said he thought this might be the most successful nonconference campaign he can recall. That’s a huge compliment, since over that span, he said, they have scheduled a series of powerhouses with the aim of landing a top-seed in the NCAAs.

The Zags have put together a 4-1 record against Quad 1 teams, and racked up wins over at least eight teams that have strong traditions and name-recognition – Oklahoma, Creighton, Arizona State, Alabama, Maryland, Kentucky, UCLA and Oregon.

One could say the lone blemish on the record was the loss to Michigan at the Players Era Festival, but to call that a blemish would be extremely generous. The 40-point beatdown was more like a temporary disfigurement.

But much has been learned from that, too, particularly in the development of resilience.

It was part of what seems mysterious about the current Zags. As Few assessed after the Oregon win, there’s considerable room for growth.

It’s such a high-revving team, but still in the process of meshing the gears. Where does all the talent fit? How can they avoid some of the occasional periods of dormancy, when it seems like they’re treading water.

Sunday, this looked like a team that had reached the end of a wicked November and December schedule. It wasn’t a Grade A Gonzaga performance. But they could nonetheless pull away from an Oregon team that was bouncing back from a recent injury-marred losing streak.

The Oregon game added further evidence of Zag strengths that should be bankable throughout the conference season.

After his 37-point outburst last week against Campbell University, forward Braden Huff put on another offensive display (20 points). His repertoire of moves, varied, and at times elegant, once again carried the Zags.

He’s not only shooting nearly 70 %, but he’s added so much to his game, some perhaps bequeathed to him by Drew Timme, some he seems to be inventing from game to game.

Steele Venters and Adam Miller did exactly what they will be asked to do for the next couple months – scare opponents from outside the arc. Sunday, they combined to sink 7 of 10 3-pointers.

What will happen at point guard? If Sunday’s game was an indicator, the answer is that somebody will provide the drive and direction. Starter Mario Saint-Supery played just 13 minutes, suffering from a bug, Few said. He failed to score.

Braeden Smith proved emphatically what Few and staff saw in him when he was lured from Colgate and redshirted last season. Playing with a speedy tempo and ball-pressure on defense, Smith connected on 7 of 10 shots with 21 points and seven assists.

When post Graham Ike seemed to struggle (making 4 of 14 field goals), he still finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds. He drew seven Duck fouls and made 9 of 11 from the line.

As was the case in several previous wins, the Zags seemed willing and adept at shifting defenses and rotating lineups. Again, it seemed to work against the Ducks, who kept it within striking distance well into the second half.

There’s so much to watch as this unfolds. So much success with so much room for growth.

Conference play opens at Pepperdine Dec 28 and then at San Diego on Dec. 30.

Last season, the Zags headed into conference play with four losses – two of them to Kentucky and UCLA – losses they already avenged this season.

Of note, given the performance Sunday at the Moda Center, first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament will be here in March.

If this was a rehearsal, the Zags looked pretty comfortable here.