Zags zig into hearts of underdog lovers

SHELTON E-mail: Click here Archive

By GARY SHELTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 24, 2001

ATLANTA -- you have to hand it to those Gonzaga Bulldogs. Darned if those guys don't even lose loveably.

Casey Calvary sat in front of a microphone, struggling to make sure it was words and not tears that came out of him, and part of you just wanted to chuck him on the shoulder and thank him for showing up. Dan Dickau sat on the other side, explaining how he expected to win this game, by golly and by gum, and you felt like just tousling his hair and telling him everything was going to be all right.

The cuddliest team in America has lost.

And won't the Gonzaga in all of us miss them?

Oh, the Zags tried. For a lot of the game, they had the veins in Tom Izzo's neck standing out, and the players of Michigan State's defending national champions kept looking at each other and wondering why this pesky little program from who knows where wouldn't go away like the seeding committee intended.

But then reality, as it often does, came along to ruin the fun, and Michigan State slowly pulled away, and the team that America fell in love with simply could not measure up.

In the end, it was Michigan State 77-62. The Spartans had beaten the Partridge Family.

And we, as a nation, are poorer for it.

Oh, nothing against the Spartans, a deep, powerful team that deserved last year's national championship and, before it's done, might deserve this year's, too. Michigan State was certainly better, especially when you consider the way the Spartans dominated the backboards 49-29. Michigan State was stronger, deeper, more relentless.

By the final whistle, however, weren't we all Zag nuts? How could you help it? They were this little team from nowhere (actually, Spokane is equal distance from nowhere and Boise) that keeps showing up and showing that the people in charge of NCAA seedings have the IQ of a screwdriver.

They are not the essential underdog, they are the perennial one. Gonzanga isn't Hampton or Richmond or Cleveland State, one of those every-two-decades whether-you-expect-them-or-not programs that amuses us with a big upset and then disappears. Gonzaga is here every year. This was three straight Sweet 16s for them, and by now, they sniff if you act surprised to see them.

Cinderella? Ha. To the Zags, Cinderella was just some girl who couldn't tell the time or keep up with her footwear. "I don't know the math, but how many balls was she invited to?" coach Mark Few said the other day. "I think it was one."

Still ... Gonzaga?

The school famous for ... Bing Crosby?

Face it. The Zags run onto the court, and the cuteness index goes out the window. For goodness sakes, they look like the road cast of Hoosiers. Or, better yet, a boy band. Look, it's Casey! And Corey! And Dan! And Blake! And Zach! What is this? A basketball team or 'N Sync?

Ah, but they will fool you. Ask Michigan State, which seemed out of synch the first 25 minutes or so.

"That team," Izzo said, shaking his head. "I love there toughness. I love the way they play."

To be honest, Izzo didn't look as if he enjoyed it that much for a while. He thought his team was a step slow, he said. The Spartans kept going ahead, and it would appear someone had finally told the Zags they were a 12 seed. But Calvary or Dickau would hit a shot, and the game would tighten again.

"We thought we were going to win the game," Dickau said. "Even in the last two or three minutes, we felt we were going to make a run and go ahead. It's just silly for us to think we didn't have a chance to win."

By now, America knows. Who doesn't love the Bulldogs? Who doesn't love Calvary and the way he muscles inside? And who didn't enjoy Dickau in the movie One on One? What's that? It was Robbie Benson? Fine. You tell the difference.

The point is, Gonzaga -- the precious and Few -- owned the crowd, much the way it has captured the rest of the nation.

"We're the champions," said Michigan State guard Charlie Bell. "We're used to people pulling for the other team. To tell you the truth, I pull for the underdog myself."

Everyone does. Except, perhaps, the NCAA seeding committee. If nothing else, Gonzaga's success should be enough to make the NCAA reconsider the way it seeds teams. Sure, the top teams from the top conferences should be seeded higher than the champion of something called the West Coast Conference. But why should the fifth or sixth team from the ACC or SEC rank so high ahead of them. Consider Georgia, which was an eighth seed. And consider Gonzaga, which was a 12. Does that make sense to anyone? This is the beauty of the NCAA tournament, for some team to come in with teamwork and chemistry and shake the pillars of the big conferences. Lately no one has done better than Gonzaga.

"I think this was two champions going at it," Few said. "We made run after run. I thought if we got it to the final five minutes, they might get tight."

It didn't happen. Michigan State wore down the Zags, harassed them into bad shots, and pulled away.

The better team won.

The better story lost.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright