Gonzaga looks to improve at-large resume

Gonzaga’s schedule reads WCC seventh-place Portland on Thursday and 16th-ranked SMU on Saturday.

The Zags will be heavy favorites in the first game. They led by as many as 20 in the second half before posting an 85-74 win over the visiting Pilots last month.

The SMU game will be nationally televised inside packed Moody Coliseum against a squad that was undefeated until Jan. 24. Much of the pregame chatter will center on Gonzaga’s opportunity to improve its NCAA at-large credentials with a marquee victory.

“Coach (Mark) Few was telling us to be mature,” sophomore guard Silas Melson said. “We have Portland, which is a must-win for us. We have SMU, which is another must-win for us two days later.

“Just seeing the growth on the team and in myself, I think we’ve matured a lot since the Bahamas. I know we’re going to come locked in against Portland and hopefully get the job done.”

The Zags (19-5, 11-2 WCC) have won five straight to return to the top spot in the conference. They’re close to returning to the USA Today Top 25. They’re seventh among teams in the receiving votes category in the AP poll.

“We’re in no position to look past anybody in no way, shape or form,” Few said. “We just need to win the next one.”

Lesson learned

The last few seconds were a tad more interesting than they needed to be against Pepperdine.

Stacy Davis hit a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left to cut GU’s lead to 3. The inbounds pass went to an open Josh Perkins, who tossed the ball high into the air to try to run out the remaining time. However, the clock operator was slow to start the clock and the ball came down just outside the 3-point arc where Domantas Sabonis alertly battled a Waves player for possession before time finally expired.

“I shouldn’t have put our team in that situation,” Perkins said. “I’ll learn from it. (Few) told me to just hold it. I’m shooting free throws well.”

A television replayed showed Few’s frustration.

“That’s some of the battles we’re fighting on a daily, weekly, yearly basis,” Few said. “As a group, we always look better when we’re rock solid and just doing the right things instead of trying to think we can trick the game. And that’s our team across the board, whether it’s the posts inside trying to throw tricky passes or no-looks, and all of our guards.

“Conversely, they look that much better when they just do the simple, solid thing. Just straight forward, when we do that our numbers are great, our team numbers are great, our success is great. When we go down that other road, the team numbers are bad and individual plays turn into bad-looking plays.”

Rose City homecoming

The ticket scramble is on for several Zags with Portland connections.

Kyle Wiltjer played on three state championship teams at Jesuit High. Melson was the Oregon player of the year and led Jefferson to a pair of state titles. Sabonis was born in Portland, where his father, Arvydas, was a standout center for the Trail Blazers. Rem Bakamus played at Mark Morris High in Longview, Washington, about an hour’s drive from Portland.

“You get dinner with the family and they’ll be watching the game,” Melson said. “I got 10 tickets luckily. Probably 20 more asked but I had to tell some people no.”

Sabonis lived in Portland until he was 6 years old.

“I remember our house, kindergarten, the Rose Garden and watching my dad play,” Sabonis said. “Last year I visited the house I grew up in and I remember some of the restaurants we went to as a family.”

During Trail Blazers’ games, Sabonis was usually in the team’s play area for children.

“Only one of us could sit with mom (watching the game) because there was only one seat,” Sabonis said. “Each of us (two older brothers) would get one quarter so we rotated through.”