The Gonzaga men’s basketball team has spoiled us.

Not long ago, we got excited when the Bulldogs were picked to play in the National Invitational Tournament.

Now, we expect NCAA postseason invitations every year and decent seeding and deep runs to the rounds of Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, or dare we say, Final Four.

Our young men no longer wear Cinderella’s glass slipper. We also expect the Zags to be ranked nationally during the season, to win the West Coast Conference regular season title and tournament, and to produce NBA draft picks.

Our last demand was met Thursday. Again. For the second time in three years, a Zag was drafted by an NBA team when the Minnesota Timberwolves picked guard Blake Stepp in the second round with their first pick overall. Two years ago, Dan Dickau, another Gonzaga guard, joined future Hall of Famer John Stockton as the only Bulldogs to be picked in the first round of the NBA draft. Ronny Turiaf, the 6-foot-10 center from Martinique, would have been drafted, too, if he’d opted out of his 2004-05 senior year at Gonzaga.

We collectively willed Turiaf to forgo pro basketball’s pot of gold and stay with Coach Mark Few’s program because, well, we’re pampered. Despite an influx of more young talent, Gonzaga needed Turiaf to conjure more March Madness. Besides, we knew Gonzaga was a special place to play basketball and an emotional player, like Turiaf, would have a difficult time leaving early.

Last month, Turiaf made that point in announcing he was staying at Gonzaga for his senior year: “My time at Gonzaga has been an unbelievable experience,” he said. “I started three years ago not knowing what to expect, and in that time I have learned that Gonzaga is a special place with special people. I’m looking forward to finishing what I have started, both on and off the court. Having the opportunity to graduate next year and wear the Gonzaga uniform for one more season is an opportunity I cannot pass up.”

We can picture Turiaf leading his class of talented Zags onto the new McCarthey Athletic Center for the first warm-up next fall, igniting rowdy students in the new Kennel and the rest of the packed crowd of 6,000.

We expect big things from him, junior Erroll Knight and soon-to-be super sophs Derek Raivio, Adam Morrison and Sean Mallon.

We want more. No. 3 in the final 2003-04 NCAA poll was nice. But No. 2 or No. 1 is nicer. And when it’s over next March? We expect Turiaf to be a high first-round pick.

Between now and then, of course, we expect Dickau to find his way off the bench after two injury-plagued seasons and make his mark with Portland.

We expect former three-point king Richie Frahm to prosper with the new Charlotte Bobcats franchise after spending a year with Seattle, where he became the first Sonics rookie since Xavier McDaniel to score 30 points. We expect undrafted forward Cory Violette to catch on with an NBA team as a free agent.

We expect these things because the Zags have made us believe that all things are possible. Even a national championship someday.