Gonzaga Sticks Up for Little Guy

This is why college basketball is better than college football:

Gonzaga.

Gonzaga against Pepperdine is as meaningful as Duke against Maryland. Why? Because Pepperdine gets to see if it is tournament-ready against a national power. When Fresno State and Brigham Young threatened to have undefeated seasons and begged for bowl champiosnhip series respect, they got jealousy instead from the big schools.

But in NCAA basketball, Gonzaga can exist.

Gonzaga’s national success--going to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight and Sweet 16, playing a national schedule and beating such teams as Texas, New Mexico, Fresno State, Washington and Washington State--brings the West Coast Conference national recognition and respect. Three of Gonzaga’s first five games were nationally televised.

As Gonzaga continues winning, the rest of the WCC teams will have to keep getting better to stay competitive with the Zags. The WCC is a little like the Atlantic 10 was a decade or so ago. Temple went out and beat the big boys of college basketball in the NCAA tournament and, during the regular season, on the road. Pretty soon Massachusetts hired John Calipari and he did the same thing--took UMass on the road and to the big time. Xavier and St. Joe’s did the same. Now the A-10 is right there with the Big East.

So, as Gonzaga comes to town this weekend, first to play Pepperdine and then Loyola Marymount, the Zags should be happily welcomed. Gonzaga comes to town ranked 13th. Gyms in Malibu and on the hill near LAX should be packed and raucous because that’s how it is when the best comes around.

It’s not just the WCC being made better because of Gonzaga, though. All college basketball fans can appreciate what has been built in Spokane.

When Fresno State and BYU threatened the status quo in college football, when those two teams from outside the big six of college football, interlopers with an affiliation other than Pac-10, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC, ACC, there was much gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair. How dare Fresno State or BYU think about going undefeated and knocking on the BCS door? Send them away without any dinner and certainly without a BCS bowl bid.

How many of you were in a BCS pool? How many of you will be in an NCAA basketball pool? This is what makes college basketball better than college football. Everybody can matter.

Everybody is welcome to be good and have dreams. Not only to have dreams but to realize them. Hampton may not have won an NCAA title last March but it beat Iowa State--a 15th-seeded team beating a No. 2 seed. Hampton was in the news.

In November, the president of Hampton sent out a mailer, a reminder to remember Hampton, its team, its coach, its cool band, its success.

The game is better for this.

Gonzaga or Valparaiso or Hampton or any of the other lesser-known schools that wins a game--or two or three--in the NCAA tournament makes the game more fun for everybody. It’s good for college basketball everywhere that fans in Spokane, Wash., or Valparaiso, Ind., or Hampton, Va., get excited in March. That excitement carries over into November, December and January.

The best single game of this season so far might have been played on Philadelphia’s Hawk Hill in a small gym that holds maybe 3,000, depending on the span of the waving Hawk’s wings. It was Gonzaga at St. Joe’s. Gonzaga won, 83-80, on a last-second shot. The noise from Hawk Hill could be heard in Spokane. Almost, anyway.

“Whether it’s fair or not, conferences tend to be measured by the success of teams in the NCAA tournament,” WCC Commissioner Mike Gilleran says.

“Each time a team in a conference like ours wins an NCAA game, that has a significant impact on the national scene. The hype, the exposure on all the cable networks, all of the print media you get. The effect of Gonzaga’s success is significant and I don’t use words like ‘significant’ lightly.”

And because Gonzaga has made its NCAA noise, there will be significant noise in Malibu tonight. And in San Diego and Santa Clara and San Francisco and all the other WCC gyms in January and February.

“That’s just great for all of us,” William Husak, Loyola Marymount’s athletic director, says. “We’ll probably have one of our biggest crowds of the year for Gonzaga. There will be a buzz and that’s good. It’s good for Gonzaga and it’s good for us.”

It’s good for sports too. It’s good when Southern California can notice a game that doesn’t include UCLA or USC. It’s more fun that way.

“No one likes to see one team dominate the conference but Gonzaga is great for all of us,” Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal says. “There is a lot of anticipation for Friday night’s game. We’ll be sold out. The atmosphere is great.

“And because Gonzaga has done what they’ve done year after year now, Gonzaga is legitimized and, to a lesser degree, so is the conference. We’ve played USC, UCLA, Arizona and Oregon and I honestly think Gonzaga will be the best team we’ll play. That’s great. It’s great for a lot of reasons.”

Duke playing Maryland, of course that’s a big deal. But so is Pepperdine versus Gonzaga. Both games will have impact on the tournament. Will Maryland get a No. 1 seed? Yes, if it can beat Duke. Is Pepperdine NCAA-worthy? Well, if the Waves can beat Gonzaga--the way they beat UCLA and USC--maybe so.

It’s good to have a national power to measure yourself against. The WCC has it.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.