Spokane, Wash. – Mark Few looked tired. Sitting in his office overlooking the sparkling 2-year-old McCarthy Athletic Center, his usual neat crew cut was tousled and he frequently rubbed his eyes, as if waking up from a real long journey. Oh, what a journey. No team in college basketball has traveled as far as his Gonzaga Bulldogs.
If college basketball isn’t just how you play but who you play, Gonzaga should be ranked No. 1. But in walking the fine line that is scheduling, Gonzaga may have crossed the line and fallen off the precipice. While it should crawl back and make the NCAA Tournament, it brings up the scheduling question.
Do you schedule up to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee or schedule down to build your record and then impress the committee?
“There’s no question we’ve played the hardest nonleague schedule in the country,” Few said Thursday.
Go ahead, NCAA committee. Find another. Look at this murderer’s row: No. 4 North Carolina and No. 14 Butler in New York; Texas in Phoenix; at No. 20 Washington State; No. 10 Duke in New York; No. 18 Nevada in Seattle and at Virginia. Oh yes, the Bulldogs visit Stanford on Wednesday and host No. 11 Memphis on Feb. 17.
That’s six ranked teams and two others, No. 25 Texas and No. 13 Washington, that were ranked at the time.
Of course, Gonzaga opened some eyes, not just from the schedule but from the results. It gave North Carolina one its two losses, beat Texas 87-77 and helped rocket Washington out of the top 25 with a 97-78 rout.
“First of all, the experiences we’ve had are the experiences of a lifetime,” Few said. “As a player, you’ll always remember playing Carolina in the Garden. You’ll always remember playing Duke in the Garden. And I think we’re all going to watch Kevin Durant play for the next 15 years.”
One problem: What happens when those inevitable losses mount? After the Washington win, Gonzaga went to Georgia, New York, Seattle and Virginia and lost four straight, dropping its record to what is now 13-7. Gonzaga, which has outgrown its Cinderella image and turned into the Wicked Witch of the Northwest, has an RPI ranking of 51, and likely must win its conference tournament to reach the NCAAs.
For those counting at home, the Zags have traveled just under 18,000 miles. Space shuttles have flown less.
“My regret was if we could have – which we tried – was space it out,” Few said. “If we could’ve got home during that stretch and played a game or two.”
That might explain why in their last nonleague road game, the Bulldogs got rocked at Virginia, 108-87. “Emotionally,” Few said, “we had nothing in the tank.” Gonzaga has since lost at Saint Mary’s in league play.
There is a method to Few’s madness and it’s not just to compensate for a West Coast Conference that doesn’t have a team besides Gonzaga and No. 71 Santa Clara higher than 119th in the RPI. The surprise Elite Eight team of 1999 and Sweet 16 team three times since has become a national program.
Few believes in playing the best and scoffs at teams who don’t. I mentioned Connecticut, which played its first 11 games in Connecticut.
“You said it,” Few said. “I didn’t.”
I mentioned Washington, which played 10 of its first 11 at home, although one was Louisiana State. Few chuckled. Even Duke didn’t play on an opponent’s floor until Jan. 10 at Georgia Tech.
Then again, why should those teams risk more losses when the Big East, Pac-10 and ACC are two-month ulcers and Connecticut can sell out for Sacred Heart?
“That being said, a lot of times you can develop a lot of confidence by just playing a bunch of home games and then your guys think they’re better than they are and that can kind of carry them through a lot of things,” he said. “So it’s a fine line.”
John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
