Gonzaga coach Mark Few got the news three hours before tipoff. Matt Bouldin, the senior guard who happens to be the Bulldogs’ scoring leader, assists leader, steals leader, minutes leader, 3-point shooting leader, free-throw shooting leader and floor leader, had been reduced to a yell leader for the Battle in Seattle game on Saturday against Davidson.
Bouldin, a Gonzaga fixture since 2006, not only is old enough to remember his team’s first-round defeat to Davidson in the 2008 NCAA tournament, he is old to enough to have scored eight points in that gut-wrenching defeat. But a collision under the basket Wednesday night, against Augustana College, left Bouldin dazed to the point there were concerns about possible concussion.
And even though Bouldin appeared recovered, and seemed fit to take the KeyArena floor for his 95th career start, Gonzaga trainer Jennifer Nyland exercised caution and declared him a no-go against Davidson.
Few shared the news with his players at the team hotel. The gist of his message was rooted in a trusted self-help axiom: Whenever a door closes, a window opens up. Or maybe it’s the other way around – a door always opens when a window closes up.
In any case, Bouldin’s participation in the Battle in Seattle would be limited to watching the action in street clothes, a tough break that nevertheless had the potential to turn into lucky break for his teammates.
“I told everybody some great opportunities would be had with Matt out,” Few said after Gonzaga’s 103-91 victory. “Even if your position wasn’t affected, the situation opened up a lot of scoring chances and a lot of playmaking chances.”
The chances weren’t ignored. Redshirt freshman Grant Gibbs, in his first college start, played 29 minutes – an entire half more than he’s used to playing as a 9-minute-a-game guard off the bench. Gibbs went 0-for-3 from the floor, but he led both teams with eight rebounds.
“When Matt’s out there on the court, the game really flows,” Gibbs said. “But I don’t think anybody was that concerned about how we’d respond. We’ve had to practice before with certain guys out, and we’ve had to play games before with certain guys out.”
Another freshman, 6-foot-11 forward Kelly Olynyk, went scoreless, but contributed a decent turn distributing the ball from the high post.
Olynyk, who came into KeyArena with seven assists for the season, had four assists in 15 minutes against the Wildcats.
And so it went: Unable to rely on a shooter averaging 16.8 points a game, the Bulldogs exploded for 103 – the most they’ve scored since they beat Michigan State, 109-106, in a triple-overtime marathon in Hawaii on Dec. 22, 2005.
Unable to rely on a poised passer averaging 3.7 assists a game, the Bulldogs dictated an upbeat tempo when they were in a full-court mode and set themselves up for a parade of layups when they operated out of half-court sets.
It wouldn’t be accurate to call the layups uncontested; they were contested, usually by a hand that drew a whistle and sent the Bulldogs to the foul line. They attempted a school-record 54 free throws, and converted 41, tying a school record from 1990.
Without its most accurate free-throw shooter, Gonzaga went 24-for-30 from the line in the second half, among the reasons Davidson fell behind by 11 points with 15:17 remaining and never got closer than nine.
“The coaches prepared us to play without Matt,” said sophomore center Robert Sacre, among a trio of Bulldogs to score at least 20 points (he finished with 23).
Freshman forward Elias Harris had a career-high 27, while electro-guard Demetri Goodson added 22.
“We knew that being one guy down shouldn’t faze us,” Sacre continued. I don’t want to say that it was a great thing Matt was out, but it was a good thing for the team to be successful without him.”
As impressive as the Bouldin-less Bulldogs were Saturday, they couldn’t have ordered a more timely opponent than Davidson. The Wildcats (2-7, with victories this season over only Fredonia State and The Citadel) were physically mismatched – their tallest starter, 6-10 Jake Cohen, is a slightly-built freshman who is a few years and several pounds away from achieving his potential.
More problematic would be Gonzaga having to face the likes of Duke without Bouldin. Which, come to think of it, is a possibility: A nationally televised contest with the Blue Devils, in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, awaits the Bulldogs this Saturday.
Still, scoring 103 points, without Matt Bouldin, qualifies as a very good day.
“We knew everybody would have to step up and play their best game,” Harris said. “It sounds simple, but it wasn’t.”
john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com
