Good reason for Gonzaga optimism

During one of Gonzaga’s televised games early this season, ESPN commentator Jay Bilas offered the unexpected suggestion that this could be one of the Zags’ best teams ever.

Huh?

With all the new guys? With an all-freshman starting backcourt?

No way anybody could compare this edition to the Elite Eight or Sweet Sixteen and highly-ranked GU teams in the past. What unrealistic expectations for the current team with only one senior starter.

But during stretches against Arizona on Saturday, these Zags showed impressive precociousness.

In front of 15,127 at KeyArena, the Zags nearly blew the Wildcats out of the gym in the first half, scoring the first 14 points and leading 22-4 with nine minutes played. They cooled late, and held on for a 71-60 win.

And despite their typical killer December schedule, the Zags are 7-2, with their only losses against Michigan State and Illinois.

“I told them that might be as tough a week as we’ve had in quite a while,” coach Mark Few said.

In the previous seven days, they dropped a home game to Michigan State, took final exams, defeated a veteran Oral Roberts team and turned around “to play a very, very good Arizona team; that’s a heckuva week,” Few said.

One of Few’s prime concerns before this one was that the Zags tend to come out emotionally flat in games following finals. But that was hardly the case against Arizona, as they dominated the first half.

A quick start was important.

Playing top-flight opponents in KeyArena has been a challenge for recent Zags teams. They’ve lost four of their past five of these get-togethers to the likes of Nevada, Tennessee, Connecticut and Illinois. Their only win in that stretch came against Davidson in 2009.

Abusive scheduling is part of Few’s plan.

“Coach trusts us against these teams,” senior center Robert Sacre said. “He keeps throwing tough teams at us because he knows we can handle it. I’m glad we’ve got a schedule like this, it gets us ready for the end.”

Few has said that the strength of this team is chemistry, which seems interesting since the roster is not only young, but could be considered the United Nations of Gonzaga. Half of the 12-man roster is international, with two players from Germany, two from Canada and one each from France and the Ivory Coast.

The most obvious factor in the Zags’ win Saturday was junior forward Elias Harris, a German, who scored 25 points from all over the floor while showing the kind of talent and athleticism that has twice landed him on preseason Wooden Award watch lists.

Freshman guards Kevin Pangos (Canada) and Gary Bell Jr. (Kentridge) shot a combined 3-for-20 from the field, but Pangos finished with 11 points and eight assists. As important, the two committed just two turnovers in a combined 61 minutes of playing time.

That the Zags could come away with six turnovers against Arizona – after averaging nearly 15 a game so far – was one of the keys. And their 16 offensive rebounds helped counteract the 43 percent shooting (3-for-20) from 3-point range.

Another important ingredient in the competitive chemistry is junior wing Mike Hart, who is the latest in the GU lineage of scrappy defenders in the Mark Spink, Mike Nilson, David Pendergraft mold. Hart finished with six offensive rebounds – two-thirds as many as Arizona claimed.

As with most young teams, consistency has been an issue and could be a limiting factor for the Zags down the road.

Harris looked like an All-American on Saturday but was averaging a modest 12 points in the first eight games. Pangos ripped up Washington State with nine 3-pointers in November, but has netted six of his last 28 treys.

Asked if he thought anyone could have predicted the Zags would be 7-2 at this point, Sacre knew of at least one person. Himself.

“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” he said. “I believe in these guys. They’re showing what they can do. I’m really excited to see what this team is going turn into.”

Dave Boling; 253-597-8440 dave.boling@thenewstribune.com