Basketball | Gonzaga gets little joy in win

SPOKANE — The hope was, 6,000 people at the McCarthey Athletic Center enjoyed what they saw here Saturday. Because the two guys on the ends of the bench didn't.

"Like a root canal," said Bill Grier, the San Diego coach. "Quite honestly, I've been kind of dreading this day."

"It was a hard week, as hard as you could ever imagine," sighed Mark Few, the Gonzaga coach. "It wasn't fun. There's just no satisfaction from it."

And this was the winning coach talking.

Few's Gonzaga team beat San Diego, 80-70, almost a subplot to the day's predominant story line: The return of Grier, 44, to the program where he spent the last 16 years as one of the young lions who helped turn Gonzaga from quiet, little backwater West Coast program to national headline-hogger.

Grier used to room with Few and Dan Monson — Long Beach State coach and ex-Zags head man — when the three were assistants here way back when. The godfather of his young daughter is Ray Giacoletti, now a Gonzaga assistant.

The game is tough enough when your emotions aren't stretching you from here to there and every five steps, you bump into somebody you know — staffers, boosters, press guys, players.

"Being here 16 years," said Grier, "that's at the core of me."

It was an uncomfortable day for a lot of people. For Grier, when the Zags blew out of the gate with a 15-0 run in the first six minutes. For Few, when Grier's team came out of the fog, battled gamely from 21 down to cut the deficit to seven with 65 seconds left. And, probably, for the guys on the end of the Gonzaga bench.

Layered beneath the angle of Grier's return is the ongoing evolution of the 2007-08 Zags. They began the year 14th-ranked with a bulging roster of capable players and promising freshmen, only to see their progress slowed by a staccato succession of injuries.

They've gotten healthy again, except for the cold and flu bugs of January, and Few has shortened the roster. Freshman Robert Sacre, who started two games during Josh Heytvelt's injury absence, didn't get off the bench against San Diego. Nor did Larry Gurganious, who also started two games and for whom Few envisioned a possible role as an Erroll Knight-style defensive stopper.

Meanwhile, Steven Gray, the precocious freshman from Bainbridge, has edged into the starting lineup ahead of Micah Downs, who was making too many dubious offensive decisions.

Few played mostly a rotation of eight against the Toreros, with junior-college product Ira Brown getting four late minutes as No. 9.

"Everybody's had their shots this year," said Few. "We're going to try to play you, but if you continue to do the same things that aren't helping us, we've got to make adjustments.

"It's wide-open. We talked at the beginning of the year, competition is going to be keen."

In his fourth start, Gray had eight of the Zags' first 12 points. Then Downs, who seems more careful with the ball in his recent role, came off the bench and went 5 for 5 with one turnover in 23 minutes. Those two, with Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin, give Few a lot of backcourt options.

"We think those four guards, as a group, can play with anybody in the country," said Zags assistant Tommy Lloyd.

Said Downs, "It is hard to come off the bench. But, yeah, it fits me well and fits the team well. I mean, you look at Coach Few's record, how many games he's won (225), and it kind of tells you he knows what he's doing."

The Zags (14-4 overall, 3-0 West Coast Conference) still seem to go in fits and starts, but have the look of a team that could be offensively lethal if and when Heytvelt returns to form. Yet Grier, who used to specialize in defense on the Gonzaga staff, likes that side of GU's game as well, even as the Toreros' excellent junior guard, Brandon Johnson, riddled the Zags for 26 points.

"Everybody wants to talk about their offense here," Grier said. "They're great in transition and they shoot the three so well. But I think they're doing a really good job on defense. They had us frustrated in the first half because of their length.

"We'd drive and look to kick, and they were already back in the [passing] lane."

This was a long day for Grier and Few, even longer than those days they spent as Gonzaga assistants, a day to get past and get about the business of grooming your basketball team.

SAN DIEGO 70
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Pomare	31	3-8	2-3	5-11	1	3	8
Jones	19	2-5	1-2	0-3	2	4	5
BJohnson	40	10-19	2-5	1-1	2	2	26
Lewis	25	2-7	3-4	3-5	0	4	8
Jackson	32	5-10	2-2	1-6	4	2	15
Fleming	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Ginty	19	1-2	0-0	0-2	2	2	3
TJohnson	20	2-6	0-0	0-2	1	2	4
Houston	5	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
Lozeau	9	0-0	1-2	1-1	0	0	1
	200	25-58	11-18	11-33	12	20	70

Percentages: FG .431, FT .611. Three-point goals: 9-20, .450 (B.Johnson 4-10, Jackson 3-3, Ginty 1-2, Lewis 1-4, T.Johnson 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 4 (Jones 2, Pomare, T.Johnson). Turnovers: 18 (B.Johnson 5, Lewis 4, Jackson 3, Ginty 2, Jones 2, Lozeau, Fleming). Steals: 12 (B.Johnson 7, Lozeau, Ginty, Jones, Lewis, Jackson). Technical fouls: None.

GONZAGA 80
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Pendergraft	31	3-6	0-1	2-9	2	2	8
Heytvelt	29	5-10	5-6	1-5	1	2	15
Pargo	36	4-8	1-2	1-5	8	2	10
Bouldin	37	4-7	6-8	0-3	2	3	16
Gray	20	4-8	0-0	1-3	2	2	10
Daye	9	2-3	0-0	0-0	0	2	4
Downs	23	5-5	1-3	1-3	0	2	12
Kuso	11	2-4	1-1	0-1	0	2	5
Brown	4	0-1	0-0	0-1	1	0	0
	200	29-52	14-21	8-34	16	17	80

Percentages: FG .558, FT .667. Three-point goals: 8-15, .533 (Pendergraft 2-3, Gray 2-4, Bouldin 2-5, Downs 1-1, Pargo 1-2). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 7 (Pendergraft 2, Gray, Downs, Kuso, Heytvelt, Pargo). Turnovers: 18 (Bouldin 7, Pargo 4, Gray 3, Pendergraft 2, Downs, Heytvelt). Steals: 13 (Gray 4, Pendergraft 4, Pargo 2, Downs 2, Bouldin). Technical fouls: None.

San Diego	29	41	—	70
Gonzaga	46	34	—	80

Attendance: 6,000. Officials: Ken Ditty, Byrne Haskins, Deron White.