Dave Boling: Near-perfect Gonzaga sets table for ‘vintage’ NCAA Tournament run

WICHITA, Kan. – This game felt like an appetizer.

Tasty, and a bit teasing, creating a hunger for more satisfying encounters ahead.

Gonzaga’s 89-68 thrashing of Georgia in the NCAA Tournament first round on Thursday displayed a group of Zags performing at peak efficiency on both sides of the court.

While physical on defense and the boards, the Zags’ offense and transition game were smooth and artful, a combination that sets the table for a sensational Saturday match with top-seeded Houston.

Georgia, one of the many SEC also-rans scattered through the brackets, never threatened as the Zags scored their 16th consecutive NCAA opening-round victory.

Racing almost unhindered to a 27-3 lead in little more than the first eight minutes, the Zags played their most complete game of the season, at times making No. 9-seeded Georgia look no more threatening than a Portland or Pacific.

Huff was battling. Battle was huffing. Nolan was rollin’. And a number of other Gonzaga players – whose names defied punning – executed to perfection.

Remember a few weeks ago when skeptics wondered if this was the year that would end GU’s streak of consecutive tournament appearances (now at 26)?

Obviously, this team has ironed out the troublesome wrinkles and is peaking at the absolute perfect time, playing with confidence and swagger.

“Our guys took the plan and executed it to perfection,” GU coach Mark Few said.

It’s been since 2008 that GU was bounced in the first round, and that took a memorable 40-point performance by a baby-faced, wispy guard from Davidson named Steph Curry.

Everything in Thursday’s game validated the moves Few and his staff made to perk up a season when they lost four conference games and, at one stretch, seemed as if they had no answers for a failing defense.

Dynamic guard Khalif Battle needed some time to fully mesh with his new teammates on the defensive end this season, and took to the bench for a couple of games.

Thursday, Battle was simply brilliant, the best all-around player on the court, with a game-high 24 points (four 3-pointers), eight rebounds, and any number of aggressive defensive plays.

He is fully engaged and exploiting his talents in so many ways. One of his spinning lane drives that culminated in a reverse layup could have been put to music.

Sophomore Braden Huff was the first “big” off the bench almost all season, but again proved himself worthy of his second consecutive start, scoring 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field with eight rebounds.

If it took a little ripening for him to work his way in, it was well worth it. His baseline moves and soft touch make him such a great tandem threat with Graham Ike inside. And against a physical Georgia front court, Huff played tough and was willing to mix it up as necessary.

Senior Nolan Hickman netted 5 of 6 3-point attempts for 18 points. It was a truly gaudy display of shooting talent.

“I think this team right now is playing how we all envisioned it playing,” Few said.

“It was great to do it on the biggest stage. But now we’ve got a huge challenge coming down the pipes here.”

Yes, top-seeded Houston, the Big 12 champions, coached by Kelvin Sampson. Daunting, sure, but not nearly as much as it might have seemed before Thursday’s tipoff.

Few was asked afterward about in-season criticism that this team wasn’t up to the standard established by “vintage Zag” predecessors.

“I think it is a vintage Gonzaga team because it got itself to the NCAA Tournament and it’s advancing,” Few said. “I think sometimes when the standard is National Championship or Bust, it’s hard to live up to it.”

Revealing a bit of his inner workings and intrinsic motivations, Few said he sometimes finds it hard to deal with the expectations, too.

Aside from Gonzaga’s unreal successes in the NCAA Tournaments, every year of this century, he assisted on the USA Basketball Olympic gold medal team this summer.

Few quoted USA coach Steve Kerr: “Winning is kind of addictive. You want more.”

Yes, and sometimes a big win, earned by a perfect performance by the entire team, seems like just an appetizer for the next game.