History could favor Zags

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History could favor Zags over North Carolina

Here in the NCAA South Regional, North Carolina and Gonzaga compare RPMs tonight, answering a question that has been asked repeatedly this week:

Is there muscle memory in basketball?

The teams have met only once, in the NIT Tipoff semifinals in New York in November of 2006. Gonzaga won, 82-74.

What's striking about a look back to that box score is that the three Zags still around ? Josh Heytvelt, Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin ? all played well. They combined to shoot 19 of 32 from the floor and Bouldin had six assists and Heytvelt four blocks.

All of which could be a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, no more indication that Gonzaga is positioned to win this game than if Carolina were facing a Wake Forest team to which it had previously lost. For the Tar Heels, it was 107 games ago.

"Obviously the teams are different," Bouldin said in the Gonzaga locker room after the Zags' public practice Thursday at the FedEx Forum.

"Probably our approach is what I take from it. We went into that game firing. We didn't have any fear."

It's possible that the 2006 game could even affect Gonzaga negatively. It's been the first question on a lot of interrogators' lips this week, a reminder to the proud Tar Heels that they fell short against a relative upstart.

"That's definitely in the back of our minds," said Carolina forward Deon Thompson, "something we want to use to motivate us and prove we can beat this team."

So, just what the Zags need: The manic Tyler Hansbrough, with a mad-on.

"Everybody talks about, oh, we have the same players," said the All-American Hansbrough, "but we've all changed."

Six Tar Heels remain from that game. Only the point guards, Ty Lawson and Bobby Frasor, accomplished much. Hansbrough had nine points and nine rebounds, guard Wayne Ellington was 2 of 11 from the field.But that was then, this is now. Zags coach Mark Few points out that Heytvelt and Hansbrough weren't directly matched up much as Heytvelt had 19 points and nine rebounds.

This time, they will be, as Gonzaga has fewer options. So look for Gonzaga to play some zone defense to protect Heytvelt, and also to use 7-4 Will Foster in spots.

A player who won't be on the floor will play a part. Zags reserve big man Robert Sacre had foot problems much of the season, and when he was finally healthy in February, Gonzaga opted to save him for a redshirt year. This would have been a key spot for him.

That leaves it to others, like Gonzaga sophomore Austin Daye, to emerge and make the most of a moment.

"Austin Daye may be as gifted as anybody on the court tomorrow," said North Carolina coach Roy Williams.

"We're definitely going to need Austin," says Bouldin. "He causes so many mismatch problems offensively."

Ironically, Daye likely will begin the game against the 6-8 Thompson, who was an AAU teammate in southern California a few years ago.

Meanwhile, Williams was talking pessimistically about Lawson, who came back last week from a jammed toe against LSU but is still recovering.

Said Williams, "I went to him this morning and said, 'On a scale of 1 to 10, how was it yesterday?' He said about a 6. 'How is it today?' About a 6. I said, 'How was it Saturday before the LSU game?' He said about an 8. That's not encouraging to me."

If Lawson is limited, that would slow what should be a freewheeling game.

"It's all about who's getting better shots," said Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice. "Both teams are going to go fast. If you're not getting better shots, you'd better pull it back a little."

Notes

? Gonzaga scheduled an evening workout off-site in addition to the public one, customary for all teams in the NCAA.

? Worst request of the week for the GU publicists? A Sirius radio station requested to talk to a player between 7-10 a.m. Eastern time ? or 4-7 a.m. on the West Coast. That was turned down.

? Thompson visited Gonzaga, UNC, Connecticut and Kentucky in recruiting, saying Few made a big impression on his mother. "I just really wanted to play for Coach Williams after meeting him and seeing their style of play," Thompson said.

? Gonzaga played in the FedEx Forum a year ago in a loss to Memphis, but Pargo minimized that, saying, "You've got to play wherever you're at, whether you're here or Nova Scotia." Nova Scotia? "That's the first thing I could think of," he laughed.

 

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Jeremy Pargo's matchup with Ty Lawson key for Gonzaga

Gonzaga point guard Jeremy Pargo has shown his resilience after a bad game against UConn. Can he continue his roll Friday against North Carolina's Ty Lawson?

MEMPHIS ? The loss stayed with Jeremy Pargo like a deep bruise. He felt it after the game, when he shouldered all the blame, saying he played like a third-grader against college guys.

He felt it at practices where the ghosts of his late-game turnovers against Connecticut trailed him onto the floor. And he was hobbled by that loss in subsequent December defeats by Portland State and Utah.

The Gonzaga senior point guard wasn't being honest with himself. Yes, his turnovers were uncharacteristic and were part of the reason for the overtime loss to UConn in late December. But he was reacting as if he'd forgotten every good thing he'd done in his previous 3 ? years.

For this curious period in Pargo's otherwise solid-as-the-Siskyous career, he lost perspective. He put the loss on himself and couldn't rid himself of its burden.

"My mother always told me to take responsibility for what you do. It's the way I grew up," Pargo said Thursday afternoon in the locker room beneath the FedEx Forum. "If I felt I made a mistake, or I cost us something, cost us a game, I took full responsibility for it. You can't run from it. If you run from it, it just makes you a coward."

But this time Pargo was taking too much responsibility, and it was affecting his play and the play of his teammates. Pargo is Gonzaga's barometer.

He is in charge of this team. He is the voice on the practice floor. When something needs to be said, Jeremy Pargo says it. He doesn't play games with his teammates.

But, as the conference season began, his confidence continued to lag. His hurt was hurting his team.

"The great thing about college athletics is you've got another game coming right down the pipe," Gonzaga coach Mark Few told Pargo in a January meeting. "You don't dwell on this. You don't make a mountain out of a mole hill.

"I know it was a CBS game and a sold-out KeyArena, but don't forget how well you played in the first half. You were the only reason we were in the game at halftime."

Still, the bruise stayed.

"I tried," Few said. "Obviously I didn't do as good a job as I had hoped I would do. Jeremy put a lot of eggs in that [UConn] basket. He wrongly felt that it all came down on him, and I had to step in and hug him. But, quite honestly, it took a while to convince him of that and our team suffered during that period."


This was something Pargo would have to work out on his own, talking with teammates and his brother, former NBA guard Jannero Pargo.

Before those late-game mistakes against Connecticut, he was playing the best basketball of his career. He was moving himself up in the NBA draft, playing like the best available point guard.

He was the MVP in the Old Spice Classic, combining for 36 points and 18 assists in consecutive wins over Oklahoma State, Maryland and Tennessee in November.

He followed that with an 11-point, 10-assist game at Washington State. He had to remind himself of those past successes.

"He's one of the most unselfish kids we've ever had, one of the best leaders," assistant coach Leon Rice said. "And he'd do anything for the team. But sometimes he takes on too much and tries to put it all on his shoulders. And it's up to us, as coaches, to try and temper that.

"He takes things pretty hard, and he took [UConn] very hard. First, we had to tape him back together and make him understand the effect he has on this team. There's no room for him to get down, or drop his head. He is the bell cow on this team. There's no question about that."

It took a two-point game in an 18-point loss to Memphis in early February for Pargo to finally exorcise UConn. Call it shock therapy. The Zags are 11-0 since that loss.

"True to his character and true to his toughness, he fought through that, to the point now where he's playing great again," Few said. "And, as a coach, I'll be able to use Jeremy's example for a long time, just the way he fought his way through all of that.

"He just started to have fun again. Jeremy's one of those guys, you can dang near hear him when he comes into our building, through the corridors, through the arena, up into my office. He's as charismatic and engaging a personality as I've ever coached, and he lost that for a while."

Now Pargo's is the laugh that echoes off the locker-room wall again. He is the magnet that draws his teammates to him again. He is the Zags' leader again.

"The UConn game for me is over with," he said. "I don't even need to think about that game anymore. Everything in the past doesn't matter to me anymore."

In tournament wins against Akron and Western Kentucky last week, he had a total of eight assists and only one turnover. In tonight's Sweet 16 meeting with North Carolina, his matchup with point guard Ty Lawson will be one of the highlights.

Gonzaga needs the Pargo who lit up Orlando in late November. They need the Pargo who had 16 points and five assists in 24 minutes in the conference semifinal win over Santa Clara. They need Pargo at his best.

"When he's playing his ball I don't believe there's anybody in the country who can stop him," said freshman guard Demetri Goodson, Pargo's heir apparent.

And now, with UConn far behind him, Pargo's focus is keeping his college career alive.

"If you keep advancing," he said, "you can always write new chapters."

And bury the bad ones.