Dave Boling: Ryan Nembhard kept his teammates plates full during Feast Week. Gonzaga’s pick-and-roll maestro deserves praise.

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – Oklahoma had just beaten Louisville for the title of the Battle 4 Atlantis men’s basketball tournament on Friday evening.

Neither of those unranked teams was expected to be there, not with the likes of then-No. 3 Gonzaga, No. 14 Indiana and No. 24 Arizona in the field.

A whole colorful crew of Junkanoo dancers were shaking feathers and pounding barrel drums as the championship trophy was presented to the Sooners, and then as the PA announcer read off the names of the All-Tournament team players.

Two players from Oklahoma, two from West Virginia and a Louisville guy were on the All-Tournament team. All were very deserving.

Still, when those players were honored, the tournament was not actually over. Gonzaga and Davidson were scheduled to tip off in the final game. The screwy, anticlimactic scheduling was probably due to TV time-slot mandates.

But kind of disrespectful, right, to announce the all-tournament team when two of the clubs still had a game remaining?

My press-row sidekick asked: “What if Nembhard goes off for 34 points and 19 assists against Davidson?”

Exactly.

As it turned out, Nembhard was well short of the 34 points, scoring six. But his 14 assists set the tournament single-game record, and his 39 in three-games was a tournament record. How many did the next guy have this year? Seventeen.

Consider, too, that some of his Zags teammates missed a number of bunnies in these games.

Also, and this represents a statistical oversight, at least a handful of times every game, Nembhard may spoon-feed the ball to Graham Ike or Braden Huff or Ben Gregg in the low post, only to see them get fouled before getting off a shot. They make a free throw or two, and no assists are credited.

His 14 assists against Davidson could easily turned into 20.

Zags coach Mark Few has been pumping up Nembhard as deserving of more national attention as an elite point guard, and the Davidson coach, Matt McKillop, called Nembhard the best passer in the country, and one of the best point guards in all other regards.

His ability to turn ball-screens into pick-and-roll actions can be adapted depending on the approach defenders take, forcing whatever techniques they use to turn into the wrong decision.

No-look feeds, lobs, pocket passes, seeing-eye lasers between defenders, it seems as if he invents something new several times every game.

At all times, he is always the puppet-master, Dr. Dish, pulling the strings of teammate positioning and offensive leverage.

He plays fast but not in a hurry, and although it seems to defy the normal operation of the human cooling system, he plays nearly 40 minutes every game and does not appear to sweat.

A younger simulacrum of his elder brother Andrew (Indiana Pacers point guard), Ryan was the Big East freshman of the year at Creighton. He’s listed at 6-foot, to Andrew’s 6-4.

But Ryan has no impediment nor fear of penetrating the lane on his drives, which puts defenders in a dilemma.

As McKillop noted to his team at halftime, Nembhard had eight assists and two shots. The message was that it might be wiser to just stick in the face of somebody who might dunk the ball and just hope Nembhard will keep it and miss his shot attempt.

“We’re used to it,” coach Mark Few said of Nembhard’s excellence during the Bahamas tournament. “We don’t take it for granted, but we expect it. … if we can get him in the open court, he’s able to make those plays and reads and passes that make him such a special player.”

The Zags’ single-game assist record (16, Blake Stepp in the 2002-03 season) is surely within Nembhard’s reach. He already owns the season mark for 243, he set last season.

If he plays 36 games this season, as he did last season, and sustained his current 10.6 per game pace, he’d finish with 381 this season, obliterating the record he set last year.

Adding his two seasons, he’d finish with roughly 625 assists in 72 games. That total would put him fourth all-time at GU, in half the time as other leaders.

Just for fun, we can measure that against the legendary gold standard, John Stockton, who registered 554 in four seasons (107 games).

Comparing anybody to Stockton may stand as heresy, especially since the game is different, and all those other disclaimers apply.

But there are some similarities aside from baseline level of excellence at the point guard position. Mostly, control of the game.

For both, the game slowed or accelerated, depending on situational demands, and where the pieces were on the chess board, all of which was being constantly calculated and recalculated by some inner on-board computer.

A couple times, recently, Nembhard has made that Stockton patented, slingshot entry feed to the post with one hand, winging it right off the dribble without catching it with both hands – making it almost impossible for defenders to react.

Few knows point guards, and he coaches through them, using them as extensions of himself. When he calls Nembhard “special,” it’s high praise.

Nembhard seems to take all situations in-stride.

So, not being included on an early season all-tournament team soon will be long-forgotten, as he has larger goals in mind for next spring.