“The expectations are high. But this group has dealt with high expectations their entire careers.” – MARK FEW, Gonzaga coach
ELEVEN years ago, Ray Gia colatti was an assistant coach at Illinois State when he headed west with Bob Bender to resurrect the Washington basketball program.
Upon is arrival in the great Northwest, Giacolatti, now Eastern Washington’s coach, was befriended by another hungry young assistant – Gonzaga’s Mark Few.
“I didn’t know anything about Gonzaga,” Giacolatti told The Post by phone yesterday. “I pronounced it Gon-ZAY-ga and thought, ‘That’s a nice mom and pop outfit.’ Well that mom and pop outfit has turned into the most amazing story in college basketball.”
The amazing Zags are poised to do what no mid-major program has done before – win the NCAA Tournament.
Gonzaga (27-2), with an enrollment of just 5,206 – the number of commuters crammed into the rush-hour 3 train – has everything it takes to win it all, including its first two games in nearby Seattle where the crowd will be Bulldog-crazy.
The Bulldogs, who open play Thursday against Valparaiso, have won 20 straight. They have one of the best big men (Ronny Turiaf) and point guards (Blake Stepp) in college basketball and the Zags, making their sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, are tournament-tested.
“The expectations are high,” acknowledged Few. “But this group has dealt with high expectations their entire careers. Remember, this is the group that came in after we went to the Elite Eight [in 1999], so they understand the weight of expectations.”
The expectations have come quicker than the respect. Last year Gonzaga went 23-8 in the regular season and got jobbed by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, which gave the Zags a No. 9 seed.
Gonzaga upset Cincinnati in a first-round game and then teamed up with Arizona to play the best second-round game in the history of the NCAA Tournament. Arizona won a double-overtime thriller, 96-95, but no longer could Gonzaga be looked at as some quaint Cinderella.
This year the Zags got the No. 2 seed in the Midwest and could be on a collision course with Kentucky. The Zags, who already have beaten Missouri, Georgia, Maryland and Washington this season, won’t be intimidated by the Wildcats.
“They know they can play with anybody and they feel they can beat anybody,” said former St. John’s coach Mike Jarvis, whose teams lost twice to the Zags, including the 2000 NCAA Tournament when the 10th-seeded Zags ousted the No. 2 Red Storm in a second round game. “When we played them, they were as good as any team in our league and they’ve gotten better.”
Better, bigger, deeper, stronger.
Stepp is the latest in a line of great point guards that started with the incomparable John Stockton and included Matt Santangelo and Dan Dickau. Turiaf is coming off a career-high 29-point performance in the West Coast Conference tournament championship game.
The Zags shot 51.5 percent from the field and averaged more than 18 assists per game. Their only two losses were to St. Joseph’s, when Turiaf was out with an injury, and Stanford. The Hawks and Cardinal are No. 1 seeds.
“This is in my opinion, the best team they’ve ever had,” said Valparaiso coach Homer Drew.
It’s so good that suddenly the glass shoe is on the other foot. There are questions that Gonzaga might overlook an opponent, such as Valparaiso. Washington State assistant Tony Bennett, son of Cougars head coach Dick Bennett, says, “No way.”
“They’re as deep as any team in the country, they attack you on the glass and guys like Stepp, Cory Violette and Richard Fox are seniors,” said Tony Bennett. “They have no weaknesses.”
