THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: With Suggs, start of Zags games is can't-miss TV

Jalen Suggs made it a specific point.

Coach Mark Few has to speak to him during games, Suggs said, in order to slow him down.

The freshman star from Minnesota gets going too fast, he admitted, and it limits his effectiveness.

But the more he can absorb Few’s advice to take his time, see the court and make good decisions, Suggs insisted, the better he can be.

You know what?

That’s just plain scary.

Suggs already dominates games against excellent college teams, and even at just 18 years old, he’s a principal reason why the Zags leap out to early leads against their tougher opponents.

They did it again Thursday night at the Kennel, throwing early haymakers at BYU to take leads of 20-2 and 30-7 before the Cougars could even get settled into the game.

The No. 1-ranked Zags eventually cruised to an 86-69 victory with reserves playing the last few minutes.

But to really, really get a feel for Suggs and Gonzaga…

You can’t miss the first dozen or so possessions.

SUGGS’ STATS looked fine.

He scored 16 points, along with adding 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

That assist line was a little misleading, though, since a few layups were missed after he made dazzling passes — plus, on several occasions, Jalen’s teammates were fouled as they went up to complete plays.
 (By the way, I don’t understand why you aren’t credited with an assist when your pass leads to a two-shot foul, but that’s an argument for another day.)

One assist that Suggs DID pull off during Gonzaga’s 52-29 first-half blitz will be shown on plenty of highlight tapes.

Jalen tugged a defensive rebound free from a crowd, took one dribble and launched a full-court pass to a closely guarded Joel Ayayi.

The ball hit Ayayi perfectly in stride, and the Frenchman laid it in while being fouled.

It was simply an amazing play, which Suggs attributed partly to his football quarterback’s instinct — and partly to God-given ability.

Meanwhile, Few made sure to point out that Suggs spent a good share of the night covering BYU sharpshooter Alex Barcello — who came into the game averaging 17 points per game (and an astonishing 63 percent from 3-point range), but left Spokane with an almost invisible nine points.

I’M PRETTY darn certain about one thing, and it has a part in the Zags jumping out to these fat early leads against very good teams.

You can watch Gonzaga on tape, you can get an impression of Suggs’ speed and strength, you might absorb a picture of how quickly and unselfishly the Zags move the ball, but…

It happens a lot faster and more dramatically in real life than when you saw it on tape.

I mean, you know Gonzaga can really get up and down, you see the shooting stats and grasp that Corey Kispert will absolutely kill you on 3-balls.

You can notice that Drew Timme appears to spin magically around every post player he faces, winding up with a series of acrobatic baskets.

You probably don’t spot Ayayi on tape, but you can read box scores — so you’ve been warned that he’s going to pop up anywhere and everywhere.

YET WHEN they tip the ball off and you’re facing these Zags for real, they seem so much better and more intimidating than you expected.

So your game begins to fall apart.

Virginia point guard Kihei Clark said, “I think some of us were probably scared,” after Gonzaga roared off to a big early lead — and Clark was the point guard on the Cavs’ 2019 national championship team.

What does that tell you?

A huge part of the fear, or whatever it is, comes from the fact that Suggs invariably makes a steal sometime in the first two or three possessions.

He does it with such ease, like a dad snatching the ball from his toddler — that it must be unnerving.

But hey, imagine what he’ll be like when he follows Few’s advice, slows down just a little, and REALLY takes command of games.

Yikes!

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published each Tuesday.