Zags continue to be a team that isn't overrated

Ask anyone and they will tell you that I am not the biggest Gonzaga fan in the world. Namely because I went to Eastern Washington University and our athletic programs always played second fiddle to them.

While I was enthralled by the early runs of Zag teams in the NCAA Tournament, mainly because the players were overachieving and the Bulldogs were still a Cinderella team.

Then came the whining about not getting high enough seeds (even though Gonzaga plays in the WCC), the highly touted players that were hyped to the point that my ears bled and sham that is the McCarthy Athletic Center that pretty much priced out all the regular Zag fans in the city of Spokane.

After several successful regular seasons that ended in NCAA Tournament disappointment, I felt that mainly Gonzaga had become one of the big money programs of college basketball that just so happened to be from Spokane. They were no longer the underdogs, they could just be lumped in the same underachieving but highly touted category of Duke, UNC and Georgetown. And it was obvious that the university and athletic program had no problem artificially keeping tickets hard to get, keeping the everyday man (which IS Spokane) out of the seats and the corporate suits ponying up money to say they were courtside. Thank god for the student section, because otherwise the program would of had totally lost their soul.

This season though seems a bit different for a couple of reasons. While I'm not rooting for Gonzaga, because I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon, I'm not going to drink from those waters of being a "Zag" fan after I already have my basketball team in Eastern Washington University - a team that I'll follow when I'm a gray-haired, big walleted alumni.

But I'm going to watch Gonzaga, because this team's dynamic is pretty fascinating, and here is why:

(1) Josh Heytvelt, who once fell in that category of the "one" over-hyped player for Gonzaga, is now on a mission of redemption. If you look at his career now, it would be considering disappointing, or perhaps underachieving, mainly due to injury and his love for mind-altering drugs.

However, if he leads the team deep into the tournament, Heytvelt can change his legacy from "that good Zag player that was suspended for a year for drug charges" to "that player who played his heart out his senior year and went out on top of his game." This is one of the most interesting college basketball story lines of the year. Heytvelt trying to change his legacy at the school.

(2) Jeremy Pargo, who withdrew from the NBA Draft to go back to school for one more year is by far and away one of the best players in college basketball right now. Not only is he playing to improve his draft stock but he's also trying to justify staying one more year. He doesn't want to play one more year just for another early tournament exit, he wants more.

(3) Great offense, questions on defense. This should make for a very entertaining season.

(4) The Zags have been BLOWING out good teams. It's not like they're playing tough teams closely and then showing a lot of heart and coming through in the last second. They're playing calm, systematic basketball and controlling games from the get-go. Their recent victory over Indiana is a good win (for some reason the AP story concentrated on how badly the Zags did... weird), but people aren't going crazy because Gonzaga was the favorite in the game anyway. This is a really talented, deep and focused team. They didn't have the best game against Indiana and still defeated them easily.

(5) They're not counting on just their dominance over the WCC and previous years reputation to make the Tournament. They've scheduled some tough teams, probably the toughest non-conference schedule in the nation. Kudos to them, they're doing it right this year.

(6) The WCC is a tougher conference, they sent three teams to the tournament last year, but it's apparent to me that they will cut through this conference schedule like butter.