THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: With Huff still sidelined, Zags mixing things up

Let’s use baseball as a comparison.

If the Mariners lost a key hitter for a couple of months with a knee injury, they’d have to make some adjustments.

Maybe somebody would come off the bench, he’d play every day in that open spot, and the whole staff would walk around with fingers crossed.

Of course, the other possibility might be calling up a bat — and a guy to swing it — from the minor leagues.

Neither of these options fill you with confidence.

OK, now.

Maybe you’ve guessed the analogy here.

We’re just going to change sports.

I’ve used the tale of an injured outfielder here to open a fairly grim discussion of Gonzaga hoops.

The Zags are about to enter the truly rugged slice of West Coast Conference play without big man Braden Huff, who teamed with Graham Ike in the paint to make Mark Few’s team a legit contender for the Final Four.

Huff was averaging 17.8 points per game (Ike is at 19.7) when he injured his knee in a workout prior to the Washington State game on Jan. 15.

Ike also missed three games with Huff out, but the Zags scrambled to win them all.

SO, HOW do things look now?

Well, good and … scary.

Huff spent the past few weeks with his family in Glen Elyn, Il., where he started serious rehab on his knee.

We don’t actually know how serious the injury was, simply because no one has shared a full prognosis.

Few has said he expects Huff to be out “four to eight weeks,” which might get him back in uniform for the WCC tournament — or at least for March Madness.

The safe bet is to assume Huff is done for the year.

Rehabbing a knee injury is tough going.

We’re not just talking about getting the young man comfortable strolling to class, either.

The goal is enough strength and movement that Huff can run the floor, then knock and bang with the big men in the paint he’d face in the postseason tournaments.

Huff’s individual contribution obviously would matter big-time if he can get back in action, but any help he can add makes life easier for Ike.

Graham has been a monster so far — with and without Huff — but his mileage is spinning upward, to 29.5 minutes per game.

That might not seem too brutal, but his time on the court has risen to an exhausting 35-minute range without Huff.

Ike is routinely pouring home 20-plus points in this recent stretch with Huff missing.

Opponents, though, are now double- and triple-teaming Ike, in part because the Zags are not good 3-point shooters.

In that dispiriting 87-80 loss to Portland — which likely will knock the Zags down a few pegs in the NCAA tournament — the Pilots dared Gonzaga to fire away from outside.

Result: The Zags were 3 of 18.

FEW SAW the season slipping downward, and decided to make some changes.

The Zags always play with an emphasis on defense, but without Huff, they had to turn up the volume.

Few has six or seven guys who are talented enough to be starters, but three or four of them are dogged defenders.

So, some switches.

Jalen Warley, Emmanuel Innocenti, Adam Miller and Braeden Smith became the starting group around Ike.

A team like this can only become elite by defending like a pack of dogs — and that’s what Few and his staff aimed to get.

Over the span of several games, substitutions became group affairs.

Tyon Grant-Foster, Steele Venters and a pair of freshmen — Mario Saint-Supery and Davis Fogle — offer a different look entirely.

For one thing, they can score.

Next, we’re getting to see Fogle, a lanky 6-7 kid from Anacortes, Wash., who is rapidly turning into the sub for Huff.

Fogle is an eye-catching leaper, but he hardly played at the start of the year.

Now he’s a double-figure scorer — as are Grant-Foster and Saint-Supery.

It’s tempting to imagine what this team could accomplish if Huff comes back.

Sadly, that may not happen.

If Gonzaga must go without its junior center, it will be a team that lives on defense.

Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to make some 3-pointers.

Davis, Mario:

Feel free to cut loose, lads.

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."