It Could Be Another Sweet Season for Zags

Dan Dickau dribbled off the final seconds, and that was that.

Gonzaga doesn’t need to be your darling any more.

Technically, it was an upset when the Zags defeated No. 21 Fresno State, 87-77, in the first game of a doubleheader Thursday at the Forum.

It didn’t feel much like one, particularly not with John Stockton--in town to play the Clippers--in the stands pulling for the guys he works out with in Spokane during the off-season.

“They were the better team,” Fresno State Coach Jerry Tarkanian said after watching his team get outrebounded by 17--and by 10 on the offensive boards, led by Cory Violette’s astonishing 20-rebound performance.

Seems as if people are getting used to having Gonzaga around--and not only in March.

“I would hope it would open eyes after Elite Eight, Sweet 16, Sweet 16, that people would take the label off us,” Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said. “I know when we walk in the gym people know who our guys are. I know Fresno knew who Dan was.”

Already, the Zags have beaten two ranked teams--Fresno State and then-No. 24 Texas. The two teams they’ve lost to, Illinois and Marquette, are in the Top 25.

They also let upstart Eastern Washington--which earlier beat St. Joseph’s--take a 16-point lead on them. But never mind, Gonzaga won.

If you’ll notice, Gonzaga is moving up in the Also Receiving Votes category in the Associated Press poll, and here it is only December.

“I’m a college basketball fan, so I notice it, but I don’t make that our goal or motivation,” said Dickau, who scored 29 points against Fresno State, making six of 10 three-point shots.

“We’re trying to become a better team. To try to get into the polls--that’s just the wrong approach.”

He gets absolutely no argument from Few, who regularly scoffs at the anointed big-time conferences.

“It’s too irrational a system to make that your goal,” he said. “I could show you about five schools most basketball coaches are laughing at still being in there. We have our own goals. And we feel we are at that level.”

They have become a program others aspire to emulate.

Paul Westphal, whose Pepperdine team played USC in the second game and already owned an upset over UCLA, looks at his West Coast Conference competition and sees a model.

“Gonzaga, it’s been a struggle for them to be accepted as a legitimate Top 25 program, but I think they’ve done it,” he said. “It really gives us a road map to show how we can get to the same place they are.

“My goal is get our recruiting to the point some day where we can go into Pauley Pavilion or the Sports Arena and actually be favored. I think Gonzaga is close to being there, and we think we can do it too.”

What has begun to stand out about Gonzaga is the continuity.

Few finds himself landing Top 50 players such as Sean Mallon, a Spokane high school player who would have been Stanford material if he hadn’t committed to the Zags so early.

“It’s changed dramatically,” Few said. “The first year people were saying we caught lightning in a bottle.

“The second year, they said that was a heck of a senior class with [Matt] Santangelo and [Richie] Frahm, like we’d never have one like that again.

“Finally, last year made the difference.”

And here they are this year, after losing standout Casey Calvary.

Dickau is the star, though he had fine support from Violette and Zach Gourde Thursday. Both had double-doubles, and together they had 32 rebounds--as many as Fresno State.

Melvin Ely, Fresno’s star, had 25 points and 11 rebounds, but he went home a loser--partly because Fresno couldn’t recover after Chris Jefferies fouled out early.

Dickau is Gonzaga’s truly special player.

Besides working out with Stockton, he spent his summer playing for the USA Basketball World University Games team that Ely played on in China.

“Dickau played a great game tonight,” Ely said. “He came out and did everything I knew he could do. He did the same things he did in China. I expected no less of him. He went out and performed just like I knew he would.”

Dickau started his career at Washington, then made a decision to transfer that baffled people then, but looks brilliant now.

“The reaction I heard was, ‘The kid’s not good enough to play in the Pac-10.’ I took that as a slap in the face” said Dickau, who started for Washington as a sophomore before being injured.

“In high school, I got caught up thinking I had to go to a Pac-10 school. Now I feel I’m at a school at the same level as the top teams in the Pac-10.

“Sometimes people still say I’m a Pac-10 reject. I don’t look at myself that way.”

Not many people could now.