Dave Boling: UConn beating is a bitter end to Drew Timme’s brilliant career at Gonzaga

LAS VEGAS – Unfortunately for Gonzaga’s basketball team, sporting outcomes that occur in Vegas do not stay in Vegas.

The Zags took an embarrassing beating in the NCAA Elite Eight on Saturday night, and we’re obliged to tell you about it.

Fans are going to beef at the officials. And there were some unusual calls.

But none of that mattered. The Connecticut Huskies thrashed Gonzaga (82-54) – the worst beating the Zags have been handed in the NCAAs.

The kind of valiant comeback that the Zags unleashed on UCLA in the Sweet 16 on Thursday never appeared. UConn didn’t allow it.

As ugly and out of control as it got, it nonetheless carried a deeply poignant quality, as it made a bitter ending for the brilliant career of senior Drew Timme.

He had set an all-time record for scoring at GU, and he put together a string of 20-point NCAA games that no one in history had matched. But he was far below his typical effectiveness.

It was logical to assume that Timme decided to come back for his senior season to give the Zags their best chance at capturing the national title that had eluded them. Wasn’t to be.

An All-American and again a finalist for national player of the year, Timme had taken them this far, averaging 28 points in the first three games of this tournament.

His clever footwork under the basket recently had led to some social media commentary, including clips of his moves. “How many steps did he take?” some asked.

Were officials alerted to those clips? Did a memo come down from the NCAA somewhere about cracking down on Timme?

Saturday night, the first tricky move Timme made, he was whistled for a walk, nullifying a basket. He was called for traveling again a short time later. In fairness, Huskies big man Adama Sanogo also was whistled for a conventional Eurostep move.

Anecdotally, without actually counting such things, it seemed that similar moves by Timme had gone uncalled hundreds of times. Timme’s played more than 130 games at Gonzaga and has rarely been called for traveling. Twice in one game?

Hard to know what goes on inside Timme’s head, although it seems like a fun place, but he had to be overthinking every move thereafter? How much would that affect a player’s timing?

UConn went up by seven at halftime on a long 3 by Alex Karaban. It exemplified the problems GU encountered in the first half, when the Huskies netted 5 of 16 3-point shots to the Zags’ 1 for 9.

Having trailed by 13 at half in the win over UCLA, the Zags surely had to feel confident they could do it again, with a smaller deficit.

But Timme drew his third and fourth foul within the first 3 minutes of the second half. Both calls might have gone either way, or been overlooked, but neither was unwarranted.

Suddenly, Timme was on the bench, the one location where he was easy to defend.

The question, then, was who will be the Zag to take over? Who will make the heroic plays?

Turns out, nobody.

UConn was too good.

Timme, a voluble and admirable representative for this team for several years, sat at the interview table and addressed the inquiries maturely.

The progress this club made from a 5-3 start was something Timme wanted to focus on. “The stuff we overcame as a group and how we stayed together, I think, speaks volumes about who we are as people more than players,” he said.

Asked about the fourth foul that took him out of the game for long stretches, Timme refused to complain. “Look, we can say, ‘What if?’ Right? What if they didn’t call a foul? But the bottom line is they were the better team tonight.”

A reporter asked him about his relationship with coach Mark Few, and Timme said he didn’t have words to express it. “I don’t think words do justice to what he’s meant to me and this team,” he said.

As he tried, offering deep thanks to his coach for his four-year experience in Spokane, Few reached behind him and patted him on the back.

Both seemed to be welling up, barely holding it together. Four years of hard work, success and, now, ultimately, disappointment, all colliding in the moment.

Few said he hoped the fans would remember Timme as one of the best players in college basketball history, and also what he meant for the school and community as “a bigger-than-life character.”

“I hope everybody remembers him for the great competitor he was and just the awesome player he was,” Few said.

This game was more than just the ending of this season and Timme’s career. Will they change conference affiliation? Who will stay on the team? Who will be the next stars? Can they sustain this streak of NCAA Tournament success?

And the biggest thing: How in the world will they ever be able to find another player and personality like Drew Timme?