A Grip on Sports: There always seems to be someone stepping up for Mark Few’s Zags this time of year, though Tuesday’s example was unexpected

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There was a time Tuesday night, around 8:20, when a picture came into my head. A bunch of people lined up, wearing those ubiquitous gray “Gonzaga” sweatshirts, following each other as they slowly step forward and jump off a cliff. Lemming style. Hopefully, they all had parachutes.

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• Their beloved men’s basketball team certainly did. A 7-foot-tall parachute wearing No. 24. Freshman center Ismaila Diagne.

Not sure anyone had that on their last-week-of-the-West-Coast-Conference’s-regular-season bingo card.

In a game the Zags had to win (and they did, 95-76), the unlikeliest of heroes – in a bunch of different ways – came off the bench and provided, well, not a spark. An inferno.

How unlikely?

– Diagne, a native of Senegal, was seen as another “project” big for GU when he enrolled in the fall after playing in Spain last season. And that’s played out. Before last night’s game, in which he played 19 minutes, he had never appeared in anything but blowouts and had not reached double digits in anything – including time on the floor.

– It wasn’t just the nine points – of course, a career high – or four rebounds or even his one blocked shot (though the last came at a key time), that highlighted Diagne’s breakout game. It was all of them together, including the minutes, as Gonzaga’s usual backup center, Braden Huff, dealt with foul trouble.

– Wait, there was one more unlikely aspect. Unlikely at least to those lined up to jump off the metaphorical cliff. The folks who see Diagne every day, his teammates? They knew he would bring “it” when he stepped on the court. The “it”? Energy. Bounciness. A rim presence.

All of those attributes were much needed when Mark Few pointed at the seated Diagne and had him replace Huff with 6 minutes, 28 seconds left in the first half. The Zags were about to trail 35-27 as Santa Clara’s Carlos Stewart connected on his second of three free throws.

From there the Bulldogs outscored the host Broncos – crud, math – 68-41. Impressive. In non-math terms? They kicked their behinds.

Not all because of Diagne, of course. Even if, in his first minute he dunked on one end and blocked a Stewart layup on the other.

That latter play illustrated something he brought with him off the bench. The aforementioned rim presence. Even though the long-and-lanky Diagne didn’t block another shot, he didn’t have to. He just needed to make the Broncos hesitant to attack. To allow his teammates the freedom to know that if they closed out hard on the Broncos’ 3-point shooters and gave up a drive, it wouldn’t be an easy finish.

The Broncos, who made an NCAA-record 23 3-pointers in Pullman last Saturday, were 8-of-9 from range when Diagne entered. In the final 32:32 of the game, Santa Clara was 3-for-16. And they were 10-of-25 on layup attempts in total.

It’s not a 100% cause-and-effect, of course, but Diagne’s presence was a contributing factor. And a contribution to the win that gave Gonzaga its seventh Quad 1 and 2 victory in 15 games. It also helped the Zags, 22-8 overall and basically tied with Saturday’s final opponent, USF, for second in the WCC, rise to eighth in the NET rankings, the NCAA’s evaluation tool.

Maybe Diagne’s contributions were not as important as Ryan Nembhard’s 15 assists, the fourth of which gave the senior guard the WCC’s single-season record. Maybe they were not as important as Ike’s 24 points (on 11-of-13 shooting) or Khalif Battle’s 21 or Michael Ajayi’s eight rebounds. But when the Broncos shot down Gonzaga 103-99 in the Kennel, the main bullets came from distance. And those missed the mark the last three-quarters of this one.

The ironic part of Diagne’s opportunity is it came, in some degree, due to an illness suffered by another Zag who has added some unexpected later-season contributions, Emmanual Innocenti. The guard has played more as Few has tried to shore up the Bulldogs’ perimeter defense after the first Santa Clara game. Innocenti certainly would have played a big role in Tuesday’s game if he had been available.

He wasn’t. And that opened a door.

In stepped Diagne, though he probably had to duck a little to get through it. But he didn’t forget to close it. On the Broncos.

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WSU: As the Cougars and Oregon State try to rebuild the Pac-12, they have decided to retain a little of the conference’s more-than-100-year legacy in their hands. John Canzano posted a column yesterday in which he breaks the news the duo “retained a right of approval vote on key conference decisions, including media rights, expansion, and Pac-12 Enterprises.” It’s an interesting, and novel, aspect of the rebuild. … Jon Wilner is intrigued by players from Pac-12 legacy schools at the combine, including Washington State’s Kyle Williams. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, you can’t write the history of modern college basketball with mentioning Sonny Vaccaro. … There are storm clouds rising over the sport, however. It has to do with gambling. And a major ring that the Feds are trying to unravel. It’s only gotten worse since it was first reported. … If Washington is going to make the Big Ten’s postseason tournament, it will have to rally after last night’s blowout at Wisconsin. In coach Danny Sprinkle’s first season, the Huskies are in last place with three games left. … Wilner returns in the Mercury News with some thoughts on the timing of the firing of Utah’s Craig Smith. … Just who may the Utes hire to replace him? … The Utes are in Tucson tonight. And Tommy Lloyd doesn’t want a repeat of the obscene chants from the BYU game. … A former Arizona State star sees positives for his old program. The Sun Devils play BYU. … Boise State has been playing well recently, but with a motivated Utah State coming to town tonight, the Broncos may have to play even better. … San Diego State helped the Aggies, and itself, with a home win over conference-leading New Mexico last night. … Colorado State ended its home schedule with a win over Air Force. … The second-ranked UCLA women are getting ready for more than the regular season’s stretch run. … In football news, the conference commissioners met and talked about CFP changes yesterday. Nothing came of it. … Oregon’s Dan Lanning has a blueprint to follow. … Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir will end his tenure in June. He admits the school was slow to adapt to the changes in college athletics. … Speaking of that, keeping college athletes takes money these days. … Colorado State added some defensive coaches.

Gonzaga: The Bulldogs’ slow start, unexpected spark and second-half domination are all part of Theo Lawson’s game story. … Theo also teamed with the folks in the office for the usual recap with highlights. … Jim Meehan covered Nembhard’s assist mark – the guard missed Blake Stepp’s school record for a single game by one again – in this story. He also has a buzzer beater notebook. … Tyler Tjomsland posted a gallery of photos, many of which are scattered around here. … We can also pass along this story from San Francisco. … Greg Lee has his weekly women’s hoop notebook and he begins this one with Gonzaga’s final regular season matchups. … Former GU standout Jalen Suggs hasn’t played in a long time due to injuries. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Portland pitcher Ryan Rembisz threw a nine-inning perfect game yesterday.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Montana is fortunate to have Travis DeCuire. That’s Bill Speltz’s opinion. … Montana State added another assistant football coach. … Portland State’s fall schedule is set.

Preps: The first of many nights of State basketball games started Tuesday. These were of the play-in variety, including Central Valley’s 76-72 home loss to Prairie. Dave Nichols was there and has this story.

Sounders: There isn’t a lot Seattle has to do tonight in their home Champions Cup match to move on in the tournament. Basically, play great defense and keep the score down.

Storm: Diana Taurasi announced her retirement yesterday. She leaves the game among the top five women’s players of all time. Maybe even atop the list.

Mariners: Seattle hopes Donovan Solano will not only add a veteran presence but some pop as well. … Yes there was a game Tuesday. The M’s hitter continued to shine in an easy win over Blake Snell and the Dodgers. … Ryne Sandberg is back at spring training. That wasn’t a given all that long ago. … George Kirby is working on a cutter to add to his impressive repertoire. … Julio Rodriguez and the home plate umpire had a discussion yesterday. And, no, the challenge rules had nothing to do with it.

Kraken: The road trip ended last night with a 7-2 loss in St. Louis. Enough said.

Seahawks: It was a busy day of press conferences and catching up with old friends in Indianapolis yesterday. The NFL’s draft combine is better known for the on-field workouts but Tuesday included updates from the Hawks’ John Schneider and his former coach Pete Carroll, now with the Raiders. They both had interesting things to say, though Schneider’s comments were more Seattle-centric. They covered Geno Smith’s future. Tyler Lockett’s. A deal with Ernest Jones IV. … Jason Peters has retired and joined the Hawks’ front office.

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• Funny how you just used to something and it changes. Drastically. It’s starting to get light in these parts around 6:25 in the morning. In a week or so, that time will switch to 7:25. Again. Expect me to be a little late after the switch to Daylight Saving Time. Until later …