It was a serene setting at Fan Lake in Deer Park, Wash., when I got the opportunity to cover a story on Aug. 4 that involved Gonzaga guard and eventual West Coast Conference player of the year Kevin Pangos and designated shutdown defender Gary Bell, Jr.

The pair were part of a seven-player caravan which made an appearance that definitely excited quite a few children and teenagers at Camp Goodtimes, which served boys and girls with cancer and children whose friends or family members are suffering with cancer. Everyone did things like make clay sculptures and brought some added smiles to the kids' faces. It was nice to see the Zags energize the kids, some of whom regarded the players as people not that much older than them as people to look up to.

Before this season began, even your most casual Zags fans had a sense this season could be special. As in, first time to the Final Four in school history special. Spearheaded by junior and leading scorer Kyle Wiltjer, a transfer from Kentucky and a regional product from Beaverton, Ore., Gonzaga won the West Coast Conference, beating tournament teams like SMU, St. John's and and UCLA, losing a tough game to Arizona in overtime by three points. By the way, SMU and UCLA play each other in the first matchup (second round) and the winner could potentially face Gonzaga in the Sweet 16.

WELL, NOW we shall see. Gonzaga, the No. 2 seed in the South Region of in this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament, will tip off at 6:50 p.m. PDT tonight in Seattle on TNT against your mighty North Dakota State Bison, with the Zags (32-2) as 18-point favorites.

My quick opinion on Gonzaga? It's a little tough to get a read on what is one of the deepest and most talented Zags teams in recent memory. When Domantas, son of (former Portland Trail Blazers center Arvydas) Sabonis is your sixth man, yep, you're pretty deep.

On one hand, just my opinion, but absolutely no one should be terribly stunned if Gonzaga loses in the third round (second game). I certainly wouldn't be if, say for example, Davidson, ranked No. 24 in the Associated Press Top 25 men's basketball rankings, or Iowa upsets the Zags on Sunday in Seattle. After all, the team has lost in the first weekend in each of its previous five NCAA appearances. I'm not saying it'll happen, of course, I'm just saying keep those expectations in check. If they end up losing to North Dakota State though, yes, that would shock me a bit.

On the other hand, in my humble opinion, no one should be at all surprised if they win it all, yes even if they beat your mighty Kentucky Wildcats - Gonzaga's certainly talented enough to do so. By the way, let's not hand the trophy to the Wildcats just yet, shall we? It'd be great if they become the first undefeated team since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers. But the assumption the national media seems to have on them slicing through Notre Dame, Kansas and Maryland like hot butter on their side of the bracket will not be a total cakewalk, even for the One-and-Dones.

SPEAKING OF the Zags, don't think I forgot about the women's hoops team making it to their tournament as a No. 11 seed, facing No. 6 seed George Washington (4:30 p.m., tonight, ESPN2) in Corvallis, Ore. If the Zags upset GW and beat either No. 3 seed Oregon State or No. 14 seed South Dakota State, they would earn the nice bonus of playing in Spokane next Saturday in a regional.

I've watched two Gonzaga women's games, including its season opener on Nov. 16 against then-No. 22 ranked Dayton, just for fun and not on assignment, mainly to see McCarthey Athletic Center, as it's often tough to land tickets to watch Zags men's games.

I also observed junior point guard and former NIC star Georgia Stirton. She's been primarily a distributor, not having to score plenty of points as there are plenty of scorers, such as leading scorer Sunny Greinacher (13.7 points per game). Stirton has a team-leading 98 assists, 3.1 per game, and averages 5.8 points per game. But Stirton has been money when called on to shoot, with a 45.3 field goal percentage, 38 percent from 3. That tells me that next season, if she'll be relied on to score more often, she absolutely has the ability.

AND SPEAKING even more of the Zags - this time a former coach - I remember doing a story back in January 2012 on Long Beach State point guard Casper Ware as a freelance reporter for Patch.com. Ware went on to be signed by the Detroit Pistons as an undrafted free agent that summer. He recently played in Germany for the EWE Baskets.

The head coach of the 49ers, who led his team to the tournament that season for the first time since 2007, and is still their coach, was none other than former Gonzaga coach Dan Monson. He was pretty blunt when talking about Ware, saying he was shy and a little academically uh, imperfect, but had plenty of nice things to say about him and how far he came, being at the time a big leader of Long Beach State.

SPEAKING OF Big West Conference teams, on a Friday night on Nov. 12, 2011, at Sage Hill School in Newport Coast, Calif., 20 miles south of Disneyland and a hop, skip and a jump from Newport Beach, Sage Hill was playing Brethren Christian of Huntington Beach in a football game.

During halftime, I walked past a very tall young African man. At first glance, I thought he was a recent high school or college grad, or possibly even a young teacher or school official of some sort.

It turns out it was Mamadou Ndiaye, who was then a junior at Brethren Christian. Now listed at 7-foot-6, 300 pounds, the center from Senegal is a sophomore at Big West champion UC Irvine, located in south Orange County in California. The Anteaters are in this year's NCAA tournament, playing as the No. 13 seed and they're playing at approximately 1:10 p.m. today on TBS.

Ndiaye is the tallest men's college player in the nation, setting a Big West Conference single-season record with 106 blocked shots. He has a wing span of eight feet and can touch the rim without jumping. He's not just a Manute Bol type who mainly just blocks shots and rebounds, as he's averaged 10.4 points per game, third on the team. I've seen him play a few times on television and he's entertaining to watch, taking up huge chunks of real estate in the lane by himself.

After a two-point loss to UC Irvine in Jan. 2014, Monson said to the local media at the time that Ndiaye altered a few shots when he wasn't in the game, saying players still looked around for him to make sure he wouldn't block even more shots.

ONE MORE person I will mention and I'm out of here. Four days after my 33rd birthday, on Feb. 5, 2011, I had a huge opportunity to cover St. John's head coach Steve Lavin in his made-for-TV moment return to UCLA, the school where he was the coach for seven seasons. UCLA won 83-72 at Pauley Pavilion and it was the first and only time I've covered a game at UCLA, which by the way is my favorite team and the school I originally wanted to attend as a child, before later realizing my 3.0 high school GPA wasn't going to cut it.

Anyway, Lavin was his usual affable self, having become a broadcaster between coaching stints at UCLA and St. John's. In 2011, after leading his team to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002, guess who the Red Storm lost to? That's right, Gonzaga, 86-71, in the first round. This season, St. John's is in Gonzaga's part of the bracket, and of course the Red Storm plays my alma mater in first matchup, San Diego State.

Game-changing players and coaches are all abound in this tournament; they're often easy to find.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013 or via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com