Zags look dressed for the part

Last weekend in downtown Salt Lake City, thousands of folks wandered the streets dressed as their favorite superheroes.

A few wore Spider-Man costumes, or other outfits where they were dressed head to toe. Others wore heavily padded clothing, as if preparing for battle. Still others wielded swords that, at any other time and place, would have attracted the local police.

But these folks were set to gather at the Salt Palace Convention Center, where the Utah Jazz used to play, for the annual Salt Lake Comic Con FanX convention.

A COUPLE of blocks to the west, in the arena where the Jazz now play, eight groups of young adult males dressed up as college basketball players, trying to advance in the NCAA tournament. Like the nearby superhero wannabes, some were dressed (and performed) more convincingly than others.

One of those groups, of course, was the Gonzaga Bulldogs. After an impressive (enough) showing in Salt Lake City, followed by a gritty encore performance this week in San Jose, the Zags are headed to their first national Comic Con convention — er, first Final Four.

THE ZAG natives were a little restless on Thursday afternoon, when Gonzaga trailed South Dakota State for much of the first half, and the media was working on their “No. 16 seed finally beats a No. 1” ledes.

This No. 1 seed thing being relatively new to Zags fans, it was forgotten that the road to the Final Four over the years has been littered with 1 vs. 16 matchups that were close for a half, only to see the top seed pull away after intermission. The Zags’ eventual 20-point victory wasn’t pretty on either end.

In what would emerge as an un-sexy but important theme throughout the tournament, Gonzaga was able to win largely because of its length on defense. South Dakota State’s stud, Mike Daum, had a hard time getting off a thought, much less a shot, against the Bulldogs’ sticky defense. Shots that came easily for Northwestern in its narrow win over Vanderbilt in the first round became tougher two days later against the Zags. More recently, West Virginia’s attempt to launch a game-tying 3 against Gonzaga looked like a lost soul in the forest, trying to shoot the ball over the tops of the trees.

ONE OF the guests at the Salt Lake Comic Con FanX was “Weird Al” Yankovic. Not sure who his counterpart at the nearby NCAA games was, but it could have been Northwestern coach Chris Collins.

Collins, former Duke standout and son of former NBA player and coach, and current ESPN analyst Doug Collins (obligatory reference), has obviously done an admirable job transforming Northwestern from perennial Big Ten doormat to the Wildcats’ first NCAA tourney appearance in the 79-year history of the event.

But on Saturday, starting from his standing position at the edge of the coach’s box, he spent much of the game against Gonzaga essentially freaking out over calls and non-calls by the officials. Since his team fell way behind early and was playing catchup the rest of the game, Collins almost seemed to be fishing for the NBA-style technical foul as a way to change momentum.

But the time he went the most ballistic — and finally received his technical — he may have been the most justified in losing it. It took replay to enlighten most of the rest of us that Gonzaga’s 6-foot-11 Zach Collins (no relation) had actually reached through the basket — his hand extending through the cylinder and above the rim — to block a Northwestern shot with some five minutes to play.

The NCAA later said the play should have been called basket interference on Gonzaga, and two points to Northwestern.

The non-call and the “T” certainly put a damper on Northwestern’s comeback — the Wildcats had more of the crowd support among the 18,565 fans in the arena, though Gonzaga had a fair amount of support as well — but Northwestern still had 5 minutes to deal with the perceived injustice. The Wildcats’ bigger problem was they had dug themselves too big of a hole early, did an impressive job battling back and making a game of it, but in the end, Gonzaga’s defense made it difficult for Northwestern to get good looks.

COUPLE THINGS the NCAA does at the games that fans watching on TV don’t see.

One is pretty cool ­— the past few years, during those lonnnnnnnnng TV timeouts, once per session, they play a video honoring the military, then ask all past and present servicemen to stand, often to a rousing ovation. That might be the best thing the NCAA does during games.

The other idea is more recent. At halftime, they pull a band member from each team out on the court, and give them 1 minute to shoot as many layups, free throws, 3-pointers and half-court shots as they can.

That can be, uh, entertaining as well. Though, to be fair, put any normal Jane or Joe out on the court with a basketball in front of 18,000 people, without a warmup, and see how they do.

IN ADDITION to a reminder that walking a block or two in Salt Lake is like walking a mile or two anywhere else, as well as getting used to the “urban outdoorsmen” occupying the sidewalks downtown, within a few blocks of the mission, another noticeable difference last weekend was the depth of the Zags.

Most college teams only have a few go-to weapons, and if they are struggling, in foul trouble or taken away by the other team, they are in trouble.

One of Northwestern’s go-to guys got into early foul trouble against the Zags and was a non-factor, placing a heavier burden on the other Wildcats who could score.

The loaded Zags do not have that problem.

To call Zach Collins a “backup center” is almost insulting. But the Guy Who Comes In For Przemek Karnowski was perhaps the Zags’ best player in Salt Lake.

How deep is the bench? Killian Tillie, who missed part of the season due to injury and had a hard time finding minutes when he was healthy, due to all the talent in front of him, was on the floor for the important stretches of the Northwestern game.

Defense ... depth ... — in addition to how many people can score on this club.

At this rate, in eight days in suburban Phoenix, the Zags — armed with figurative swords — could be dressed up as national champs.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.