Tonight’s the Night
Tonight, the most important game that I will have witnessed in my young life will take place. My beloved Gonzaga Bulldogs square off against the North Carolina Tar Heels, my least favorite entity in all of sports. How can this be so important when it’s only a Sweet Sixteen game, you ask? Not only does this mark the paramount good versus evil game for me, but I also feel a particular import to this year’s Zags team. Since last year’s disappointing first-round exit against Davidson (how does the NIT taste, Steph Curry?), I’ve told myself that this would be Gonzaga’s year. The most talented big man in the program’s history, Josh Heytvelt, is a senior, as are gritty, physical point guard Jeremy Pargo and long-range bomber Micah Downs. Gonzaga’s most highly-touted recruiting class, including the lanky and streaky Austin Daye and sharpshooter Stephen Gray, is now one of sophomores. And most importantly for a team whose hallmark this year has been balance almost to a fault, Good Lookin’ Matt Bouldin has stepped up in the last few games to be the go-to guy the team had lacked for most of the season. Plus Demetri Goodson is clearly sporting some Sam Cassell-sized testicles after his coast-to-coast layup against Western Kentucky. Also, unlike Zags teams past, this outfit knows how to play some defense, ranking 15th in the nation in Ken Pomeroy’s defensive efficiency statistic.
At least, that’s what the logical part of my brain is telling me. Really though, the reason I feel so strongly that this has gotta be the year is because I feel like I know this team. I first fell in love with the Zags during their Casey Calvary-led Elite Eight run in 1999, but that passion got taken to another level during their 2006 season (the Adam Morrison year). That team had their hearts broken in the Sweet 16, losing to UCLA after leading by 17 in the second half. Morrison broke down and cried on the court before the game had even ended. I got splinters punching the wall in my basement. My brother refused to speak for 24 hours. I haven’t been the same since (Morrison clearly hasn’t either). But I followed that team intently, beginning to end. And I’ve followed them ever since with that same passion. The guys who were freshmen on that team are seniors now. I know them better than I’ve ever known a team. And, unfortunately every year since that magical 1999 season, the Zags have looked like paper tigers, racking up a gaudy record against the WCC and then bowing out early when it counts.
This year though, I’m cautiously optimistic that the Zags, who admittedly have been pretty lackluster thus far in the tournament, will get fired up enough to come out hot in what promises to be an unfriendly FedEx Forum in Memphis. Daye, Bouldin, Gray and Downs will come out hitting threes. Pargo will play mistake-free ball. And Heytvelt, who’s more talented than Tyler Hansbrough, will block a shot or two, revealing “Psycho T” for the fraud he is. That’s the other reason this game matters so much to me. I hate UNC and their Tobacco Road arrogance and their inane nickname/mascot combo. Roy “I couldn’t give a sh*t about North Carolina” Williams needs to be sent home crying to his mommy. Saint Tyler Hansbrough needs to end his “storied” career without ever winning a national championship. If Gonzaga coach Mark Few were smart (or a dirty, dirty scoundrel) he’d send out seldom-used senior guard Andrew Sorenson at the beginning of the game with one purpose: crush Ty Lawson’s aching big toe and go down as a Zag legend and hometown hero.
When I was filling out my bracket, this game was my biggest dilemma. My head said to send UNC to the championship, with the logic being that I would be elated even if they lost to the Zags here in the Sweet 16. But then the human being within me intervened. You don’t root for the Red Sox but then bet on the Yankees. You don’t chant out Rocky’s name but secretly wish for an Ivan Drago knockout. If the Zags are going to lose, I don’t want any part of me to even be somewhat okay with it. I want my basketball heart to soar and get broken with my Zags. Even if it means wanting to throw a brick through my TV when Hansbrough gets sent to the line for the 17th time, I need to live and die with this team. These are my boys, this is my team, and this is their year. I know it.
--Ethan Frigon
