THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Zags need to find an answer for that forgettable night in Vegas

How can a basketball fail to drop?

These aren’t bang-bang tries, either, slamming into the rim at roughly the speed of sound.

We’re not talking about Sam next door, either, giving it a try with a lumpy ball on cracked concrete.

No, these are professionals or elite level college stars who normally can swish seven or eight of 10 jumpers from 3-point range.

Stepping out of bed.

Half asleep.

Their shots are automatic, and most of the time, so are the results.

They have beautiful strokes, gorgeous backspin, soft as cotton as the ball hits nylon.

And yet.

There are days or nights when shots defy physics.

When the basketball gods are having a laugh.

When Steph Curry misses 14 straight, all of them looking perfect but refusing to drop in.

It happens.

Just ask Gonzaga.

Mark Few’s team suffered through “one of those nights” last week, clanking shot after shot in the championship game of the “Players Era” tournament in Las Vegas.

The box score said they were 3-of-22 from deep, but the shots looked better than that.

Honestly.

MEANTIME, Michigan couldn’t miss.

More or less.

The Wolverines hit 13 of 27 from deep, racking up 30 points more than the Zags from the 3-point line.

You want some irony?

Absorbing that barrage from outside (and everywhere else) hung a 101-61 beating on Gonzaga — the worst defeat in Few’s 27-year reign as head coach.

More irony?

The Zags beat Maryland one night earlier in the Vegas event, and almost hit the exact score dead on the number (100-61).

Nothing like a 79-point turnaround to get your guys’ attention going forward.

Seriously, a team playing at Gonzaga’s level needs balance — and it’s got to be there without taking a couple of dribbles and wondering: “Is this our best shot, or should I throw it to the corner?”

The Zags are 11th in the AP poll and No. 5 in the NET, so these guys have high aspirations.

Yes, a team like Gonzaga can suffer through a dismal night, somehow drop-kicking shots to the tune of 3-for-22 behind the arc, and still make a run at the Final Four.

It’s not the preferred method for winning titles, though, so the Zags need to take the correct shots — and make them.

There are some useful shooters on this team.

Steele Venters, Adam Miller and Mario Saint-Supery look like high-percentage guys if the offense runs properly.

Emmanuel Innocenti CAN be a terrific source of points if he understands how and when to let fly.

One problem is going to bug Gonzaga as the opposition gets tougher: Defenders will have scouting reports in their pockets.

So-so shooters?

Here’s the space you need.

Go ahead and fling it.

HOW DO you handle a slump?

I’m not talking about a guy who shoots 20 percent, both on good days and bad.

Nah, the lad we need to help is a 45 percent shooter (from deep) whose good-looking shots are doing that “ba-ding, ba-ding” ricochet off the rim.

The most I’ve ever learned about shooting came from Jimmy Collins, who was an assistant coach at Illinois when I met him.

He had been a shooting guard at New Mexico State — a team that went to the Final Four and had UCLA on the ropes — and then took his skills to the Chicago Bulls.

“I never apologized for shooting,” Collins said. “I was the best shooter on the team, and maybe in the whole country.

“You get to the fourth quarter, and what do you want to do? Let a guy who’s nervous, squeezing the ball, toss one up there with a hope and a prayer?

“Hell, give me the rock. I don’t care if I’ve missed 10 in a row. I WILL make the 11th. That’s a cinch. Lock-solid cinch.”

What you notice when Jimmy Collins talks about shooting is that his voice is calm.

Relaxed.

He’s not talking about getting hot.

It’s about what he’s done all his life.

Our critical question for Jimmy: “How can you create a great shooter, a guy for that moment at the end of the game?”

Jimmy Collins: “Recruit him.”

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week, normally Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

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