THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Never fear, there's still time to work it out

So, how are you feeling, Zags fans?

Panic stations?

No, of course I’m not referring to Wednesday night’s cruise control exhibition against Warner Pacific — which, sorry, sounds more like a lumber company than a collegiate hoops foe.

Nope, just like you, I’m thinking of that second-half beatdown at the hands (and various other body parts) of Tennessee, which took no prisoners during that 99-80 thrashing last week in Texas.

If you don’t mind, I’m going to use a hockey analogy here to describe what I saw after the hot-shooting Zags took a 54-50 halftime lead and Pay Per View customers all over the country thought something like, “Wow, these are two big-time college basketball teams.”

Now, hockey …

The second half of that game looked like a 5-on-3 power play — not for two minutes or five minutes, but forever.

I'd imagine the Zags, totally gassed with tongues hanging out and doing little but watching Tennessee pour in shots from around the bucket, from behind the 3-point line, from the parking lot, from Oklahoma, well …

I’m thinking the Zags, like mugging victims, just wanted it all to end.

MAYBE WE should be nervous, and express some fear that this Gonzaga team doesn’t have the depth, or the physical presence, or the defensive savvy to find wide-open shooters, or whatever.

But …

Nah.

However good the Vols might be in March — and feel free to guess we’ll find them rolling — no Gonzaga team in springtime is just going to lie down and take the kind of curb-stomping we saw in the second half last week.

Not a chance.

Mark Few knew what was going to happen against Tennessee.

Oh, he might not have thought it would be QUITE so ugly, but Few was keenly aware of two things.

First, that he’s been working his troops as though he wants them to wish they could leave for a Marine boot camp.

The Zags have been seriously beating on one another, and we saw the result.

They had one exciting half of basketball in their legs and their lungs, and …

“That’s all, folks.”

I have no idea how long or how hard the Vols have been going at it in Knoxville, but they were in midseason form.

Physically, I mean.

Hell, the Zags got too exhausted to bend their knees and make free throws.

“At one point, we were 2 of 11 from the free-throw line when they made their run, and we might even have had some front ends there,” Few said.

“I think we left 13 points on the board right there, so that hurt and a couple 3s didn’t go down —- but we didn’t have any thrust and just kind of ran out of gas.”

Senior guard Rasir Bolton pointed out that when the Zags began missing shots and missing defensive assignments, yeah, they were tired.

“I think they were in a lot better shape than us,” Bolton said.

“They were just sharper on their cuts and they were knocking down a lot of 3s. That kind of blew the game open and we couldn’t get back from that.

“I think it’s more mentally (tired). Just fighting back, coming together as a team and making that stand, drawing a line together.”

Which, obviously, they couldn’t.

THERE IS that second item in this discussion, another reason why things fell apart so disastrously.

Few wanted to experiment with different lineups — for instance, starting Anton Watson at power forward alongside Drew Timme.

I get it.

There’s a temptation with the current Zags roster to use three guards AND Julian Strawther with Timme.

Maybe that’s the way things will shake out in the regular season.

But in an exhibition against a tough, talented, physical team like Tennessee, Few wanted to watch how newcomers like Malachi Smith and Efton Reid would blend in with the guys he already knows.

Could the 7-foot Reid provide some beefy rim protection (not much, on this showing)?

What sort of play will Smith provide alongside the other guards (physically strong, something they’ll need and use)?

Can they turn the point guard job over to Nolan Hickman without worry (um, eventually, yeah)?

Few has a whole squad of varying parts, many of them new to each other, or Gonzaga, or both.

Bolton brought that up after the game, too, that guys need to begin feeling comfortable playing together.

The Zags are famous for intelligent hoops, for the right switches, for sharp and timely cuts.

In the second half against Tennessee, they were just too tired to execute any of that stuff – and as Bolton pointed out, when you’re exhausted mentally, you’re not going to switch and move and help and all those other things that have defined Gonzaga basketball.

There’s time to fix things.

Few certainly has put pieces in place before now.

Let’s see how this gang grows together.

That will be the test.

Not just falling down to watch Tennessee imitate the Harlem Globetrotters.

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press each week on Tuesday through Friday.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”