Rather than a parting gift, WCC coaches seemed to leave parting shot for Gonzaga | Dave Boling
LAS VEGAS – Just a theory: The scant representation of Gonzaga players on this season’s all-conference teams is starting to look more like a compliment than an insult.
I’d still bet that just about everybody on the GU roster will play with statement-making energy when they open West Coast Conference Tournament action in the semifinals Monday evening.
So, thanks for the snub, WCC coaches.
In an era awash with social media, where almost no expression of snark or derision remains unpublished, the concept of using bulletin-board material to motivate modern athletes is charmingly analog.
But there’s a difference between disparagement from the ether-borne opinionators and disrespect from inside one’s competitive cohort.
Being overlooked by peers is still painful, and every proud athlete can raise extra juice when overlooked by, let’s say, the coaches of their league’s other teams.
This week’s All-West Coast Conference honors appropriately acknowledged Gonzaga grad senior Graham Ike as the Player of the Year. Absolute stud.
But no other Zag player was among the 22 others voted to the first team, second team, or honorable mentions. Zero. Only a couple were named to the All-Freshman team and the All-Academic team.
So, where were the Zag players who so competently complemented Ike on the co-champion Gonzaga team that wrapped up the regular season 28-3 and 16-2 in conference?
Ghosted by the league’s other coaches.
To be ranked No. 12 in the polls and No. 6 in the NET ratings (tentatively a No. 3 seed in NCAA Tournament projections), while playing without one of their best players, with at least another key player out or limited, is a spectacular achievement.
Remember, they entered the season ranked No. 23, lowest in any preseason poll since 2013. And that was with a fully bipedal Braden Huff and a Jalen Warley with undamaged quads.
To win 28 games with those impediments deserves a high national ranking on the unrecognized areas of roster-building, role-versatility and adaptive coaching.
It had been since 1995 that the Zags had only one player recognized on all-conference teams (guard Kyle Dixon).
During the span of Gonzaga dominance, the entire starting five could have been named all-conference some years. After the ’99 season, four Zags made the first team (Jeremy Eaton, Richie Frahm, Quentin Hall and Matt Santangelo) with Casey Calvary somehow getting only honorable mention.
Twice in the last eight seasons, they’ve had four first-teamers (2019 and 2021) and they’ve had at least three first-teamers 18 times in the 21st century.
Huff surely would have been honored, but has been out since early January with a knee injury, while Warley has missed two games since the Feb. 21 game against Pacific.
The lack of recognition for the Zags other than Ike reflects this team’s true strengths: depth, and a great knack for its next-man-uppery. The talent is spread so much that no individual needs to be called upon to play hero-ball on a nightly basis.
Other than Ike and Huff (17.8-point average in 18 games), only one other player has averaged scoring in double figures: Tyon Grant-Foster.
His 11.1 points a game is outside the WCC’s top 25 scorers. But during runs against even the high-quality opponents, Grant-Foster has been capable of taking over games. He had 21 points against Alabama, 12 rebounds against Arizona State, and five blocks vs. Seattle U.
He’s a foul-magnet in the lane, and somehow often elevates to block perimeter jump shots with his defensive close-outs. He would likely start and probably star for most teams in the WCC.
But no mention, honorable or otherwise.
Warley is another whose defensive and rebounding skills far exceed his 7.1-point scoring average. He has a team-leading 45 steals, and can shut-down guard any player at any position.
And when needed, he steps up with this stat line against San Diego: 22 points, 14 rebounds (seven offensive) and three steals.
Emmanuel Innocenti is another of the proudly overlooked. Another defensive ace, he put up 16 points and nine rebounds at Santa Clara, and made five 3-pointers against Maryland.
Point guards Mario Saint-Supery and Braeden Smith, likewise have all-star nights. MS-S put in 20 points against Seattle U, sank 10 of 11 free throws vs. Alabama, with nine assists in the win over Maryland.
Smith put in 21 points against Oregon and dished nine assists against ASU.
Guard Adam Miller netted 21 in a big win over Santa Clara.
And Davis Fogle, who joined MS-S on the All-Freshman team, has been a revelation, going 15-9 in points and boards against USF, with 17 points, three blocks and three steals against Washington State.
If fans don’t think players pay attention to snubs anymore, how about a couple recent examples.
A couple years ago, as a junior, Anton Watson was not included in the league honors, only to go off for a team-high 20 in a WCC semifinal win over USF.
And last year, 22 WCC players were honored at three levels, but going entirely overlooked was Khalif Battle, who came out in the semis and scored 21 points to fuel the win over USF.
The next night, in the narrow title-game win over Saint Mary’s, Battle made five steals in the second half, the last led to a breakaway slam dunk that exclaimed: “Notice me now?”
Those kinds of plays could come from any and all of the Zags in their WCC tournament action this week.
And what about coach Mark Few, who surely had to age the past several seasons, dealing with the increasingly mercenary and mercurial elements of new-age college basketball?
Rival coach Randy Bennett of Saint Mary’s reportedly said that, considering the circumstances, this might have been Few’s best coaching job yet.
Absolutely true. It’s been another amazing achievement. But, oh, by the way, this was the fifth straight season that Few was not honored as the conference’s Coach of the Year.
Few has won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA, and a number of national coaching honors already, so he’s probably too busy to notice that he’d been overlooked this season.
Yeah, right.