John Blanchette: As good as Gonzaga’s offense is, its defense made waves in rout of Pepperdine

Efficiency has become basketball’s great statistical ideal, at least if you’re going to bother thinking beyond a final score.

As it keeps scoreboards in strobe mode, Gonzaga has again become the most efficient offense in the land – a third year running now. The algebra might be unassailable, but the terminology seems lacking – efficiency implying something robotic, soulless and unspectacular.

Nobody would think to describe, oh, Victoria Falls as efficient. Seems a shame to paint the Zags with it.

As they throttled Pepperdine 97-75 on Saturday evening in Malibu, California, the Zags were at their overwhelming best – six players in double figures and 82% shooting inside the arc, to cite just a couple of superlatives.

It all seemed a little too easy against an opponent fresh off a takedown of Brigham Young on Wednesday and with the two most gifted non-Zags in the West Coast Conference lineup. And what made it look that way was Gonzaga’s defense.

Not defensive efficiency, no.

Oh, the Zags are fine in that regard, too – 11th nationally, according to the fine work of Ken Pomeroy.

But they’re more opportune than they are strictly efficient. If there are stretches of games when they don’t seem fully invested – and Saturday’s start was a good example – they pick their spots impeccably.

Call them artists of defensive circumstance, and coach Mark Few did in his fashion.

“Our defense really got us going,” he said, “after Pepperdine got after us a little bit.”

That little bit ran to the game’s first TV timeout. Pepperdine’s Kessler Edwards opened with a 3 and Colbey Ross got his 2,000th career point on a foul-line jumper, and there were drives and dunks and and-ones as the Waves made seven of their first 10 shots.

And then, over the next 6½ minutes, nada.

It wasn’t breathtaking in the same way GU’s offense routinely is, but it was certainly smothering.

Ross was pressured into a wild pass, then a rushed shot. Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs went high to tip away a pass and turn it into a dunk. Anton Watson intercepted Ross again. Five straight Pepperdine shots clanged off, all well-contested, and Suggs baited Ross into a charge. The Zags ran off 14 points before the Waves could score again.

But it also held up for the rest of the half and early into the second. When Suggs was saddled with his second foul, Aaron Cook made life just as miserable for Ross – just two free throws over the half’s last 16 minutes – while dazzling with a season-high 15 points.

Expect the Let Aaron Cook hashtag campaign to begin immediately.

If the Zags haven’t necessarily had to dig one out with defense this year, they’ve had their moments – the first half against Iowa, one of the nation’s most potent offenses, comes to mind.

“Our defense, there’s been games where it’s been really good,” Few said. “I mean, I thought it was pretty darned good against Kansas the first game of the year.

“It ebbs and flows a little bit, and probably that’s on me sometimes. I’ll be focusing on this or trying to tinker with that and we kind of lose our way until we get back to spending some time on our core principles, which are every shot’s got to be challenged, every shot’s got to be toughed, no layups and dunks and no wide-open 3s.”

By now, Gonzaga’s Top 25 conquests in 2020 are fading from the public memory and the West Coast Conference opposition is not accorded much in the way of respect.

But Few noted that, “Pepperdine is always challenging for us because they’re one of those teams where their bigs are their best 3-point shooters. That really requires some intricate and different kinds of ball screen coverages. We were much better with our attention to detail tonight.”

The Zags have had teams that have produced stingier numbers on opponents’ field goals. They play smaller than they used to inside, if rangier on the perimeter. They don’t have a rim protector in the mold of a Brandon Clarke, Przemek Karnowski or Zach Collins, though Few noted that, “As Anton gets more aggressive, that’s going to help us with our rim protection, because I think that’s probably been lacking.”

But what’s been lacking most of all, perhaps, is simply regard for Gonzaga’s defensive character.

“People pay so much attention to our offense and how well we get out in transition that they forget we have guys who can really lock up on the defensive end,” Cook said. “When that part isn’t scouted as much, we get a lot more steals and chances in transition.

“I think we are underrated defensively.”

Or at least rated inefficiently.