Dave Boling: Buoyed by eight players with ‘a very particular set of skills,’ Gonzaga has taken versatility to new heights

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – By my unofficial count, this Zags roster has at least eight Liam Neesons.

You’ve seen the movie meme where the lethal spy gets a call from the kidnappers of his daughter, and he warns them that he “has a very particular set of skills … that will make me a nightmare for people like you.”

This season, the Gonzaga men have at least eight of those guys, with diverse and specific skills, who might come down the floor in any game and give the opponent nightmares.

The versatility and so many “particular skills” mean that coach Mark Few can mix and match, plug and play, go big or go small, transition or half court.

“It’s great, obviously, a huge, huge luxury,” Few said Tuesday morning at his news conference for the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament that begins Wednesday against West Virginia.

“To be able to alter our style a little bit, if somebody is struggling or maybe not having one of their better nights, we have options,” Few said. “Maybe in the past year or two, we just had to kind of suffer through it and just deal with it.”

One of those skilled Zags is Khalif Battle, a grad transfer in his sixth year and fourth team. He’s seen a ton of college basketball. But nothing like this Zags team.

“I’ve never been around so many talented guys,” Battle said. “Everybody can pass, dribble, shoot, rebound at a high level. Ultimately, being around a lot of talented players is (unlike) anything I’ve been around before.”

The 5-0 Zags come into this tournament ranked No. 3, with Louisville and No. 14 Indiana in their half of the bracket, with No. 24 Arizona seeming to be the class of the bottom half.

ESPN’s Roxy Bernstein claimed that each of GU’s top eight players is capable of scoring 20 points a night on any opponent.

Actually, that’s probably selling them short. Four (Graham Ike, Ryan Nembhard, Michael Ajayi and Battle) have topped out at 30 or more points in a game, with Battle scoring 42 last year for Arkansas in a game against Missouri.

Of the first eight to see action regularly, only sophomore Dusty Stromer hasn’t cracked 20 in a college game, although he had a high of 15 against USC last season, while hitting 4 of 9 3-point attempts.

Stromer’s specific skills? He’s dangerous in transition 3s (47.1%), but also has a knack for getting his hand on loose balls (tied with Battle for team lead with seven steals).

Battle is the biggest nightmare addition to the Zags’ roster. He leads the Zags with 12 3-pointers (46.2%) and has been to the free-throw line 18 times – and made every one.

Point guard Ryan Nembhard may be the ultimate Neeson, because his skills can seem so subtle. He’s played 160 minutes in five games, handling the ball the bulk of the time, and committed just six turnovers, while averaging 9.4 assists per game.

How outrageous are those particular skills? Last year’s national leader in assists, Marquette’s Tyler Kolek, finished with an average of 7.7 assists per game, with just below three turnovers averaged per game.

Senior post Graham Ike leads the team in scoring at 14.6, but his fellow post player, sophomore Braden Huff, is only slightly behind at 14.4 points a game. Five games into this season, neither is averaging even 20 minutes play a game.

Both benefit from Nembhard’s pick-and-roll artistry, with Huff also showing some range, and leading the team with four blocked shots.

Maybe you have a defense that has a looming rim protector – a problem for the Zags in the past, particularly last season.

Well, senior guard Nolan Hickman has a little something for you: They call it a “floater.” Aside from his perimeter skills (43.8 3s), he can get deep into the lane or baseline and loft the ball to the upper reaches of the arena and watch it flutter untouched into the net.

It has the same unblockability as a Kareem sky-hook, just with a lower launch point.

Ajayi scored 31 against UNLV while at Pepperdine last season, and is second on the team with six rebounds a game.

Senior Ben Gregg hasn’t found his perimeter shot yet, but he’s still getting five boards a game, and showed a number of times late last season how valuable his hustle plays were, while also coming up with games like his 22-point effort against San Diego.

Are there enough minutes to keep everybody happy?

If winning isn’t enough satisfaction, they probably wouldn’t have joined the Zags in the first place.

“(Depth) is always nice, obviously. There’s a lot of stuff that happens in the course of a tournament like this, three games in three nights,” Few said. “In the course of a season, there’s injuries, sickness, foul trouble.”

Yes, all those things. Kidnappings? Probably not.

But if it becomes an issue between now and the NCAA Tournament, the Zags might have somebody on the roster who can come in and deal with that, too.