GONZAGA ZIG-ZAGS WAY PAST HIGH-PROFILE TEAMS.

Byline: BILLY WITZ College Basketball 

A funny thing has happened to Cinderella. After a few trips to the dance, she's starting to feel at home. So much so that she doesn't have much use for glass slippers these days. Steel-toed boots are a much better fit.

Call Gonzaga a Cinderella if you must, but don't bother waiting for its carriage to turn into a pumpkin.

Not only do the Bulldogs appear to be on their way to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season, they're clearly on their way to challenging Arizona and Stanford as the elite program in the West.

Scoff if you must, but nobody west of the Mississippi has won more NCAA Tournament games (seven) the past three years than Gonzaga - quite an achievement considering they've never been seeded higher than 10th.

``I would hope after going Elite Eight, Sweet 16, Sweet 16, people would take that label off us,'' Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. ``I know when we walk in a gym now, everybody knows who our guys are. We're taking everybody's best shot. There's no sneaking up on anybody.''

Gonzaga, which made its first appearance in the Top 25 in two years this week at No. 25, is 8-2 after thumping an improved Washington 67-47 in Seattle on Tuesday night. The Bulldogs have lost only to unbeaten and 14th-ranked Marquette in the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout and on the home court of No. 10 Illinois in their season opener.

The Bulldogs also have beaten Texas and Fresno State - both ranked at the time - in addition to St. John's. They'll also play at No. 16 St. Joseph's on New Year's Eve. And, as usual, none of those games are at home - the curse of most mid-majors but something Gonzaga has been able to use to its advantage come tournament time.

What's interesting about Gonzaga is that it's not living off its trip to the Elite Eight in 1999, but building off it. Gonzaga's label is that of a finesse, guard-oriented team, that can't compete inside with the nation's elite.

Try telling that to Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian, who watched his team - with 6-foot-10 Melvin Ely, likely a future NBA first-round pick - give up 19 offensive rebounds and get outrebounded 48-32 in an 87-77 loss at the Forum.

``They killed us on the boards,'' Tarkanian said. ``It was incredible.''

Cory Violette, a 6-8 sophomore from Boise, Idaho, scored 15 points and grabbed 20 rebounds. He followed that up with an 18-point, 13-rebound performance - his fourth double-double in five games - against Washington.

Violette is typical of many Gonzaga players - an unheralded high school player whose ability is unlocked and developed by Few and his staff. Violette, who has reshaped his body from a lumpy 270 pounds to a muscular 250, took only one other recruiting visit - to Santa Clara. Now, he looks like Mark Madsen with skills.

``I was a little underconfident,'' Violette said. ``When I came here, I thought `Here's a place where I can fit in.' When you're not as athletic as people you're playing against, you've got to find something to take that advantage away from them. Strength is one way and outworking them is another.''

The Zags are an eclectic mix of overlooked players like Violette and fellow post player Zach Gourde. There are also JC transfers like swingmen Alex Hernandez and Anthony Reasons. And then there is the team's bonafide star, guard Dan Dickau, whose idol - Gonzaga grad John Stockton - sat in the stands last week at the Forum.

Dickau, who was the Washington state player of the year in high school, attended the Nike Camp before his senior year of high school in Vancouver, Wash. He attended Washington, but after two unhappy seasons rejoined Gourde, his high school teammate, at Gonzaga.

``I was blinded by the (thinking) that if you're not in the Pac-10, you're not that good,'' Dickau said. ``I didn't do my research.''

Now, he is in an atmosphere - at the Jesuit school of 5,000 in Spokane, Wash. - where the collective focus is on improvement. Violette credits former Bulldogs star Casey Calvary with pushing him in practice the past two years. Few has given every player a key to the gym and at least one member of the coaching staff is available year round for individual workouts.

``Player development is our big deal,'' Few said. ``If kids come here, we tell them they'll do nothing but get better. If a kid wants to hang at the beach or with the fellas, this probably isn't the place for him. The two things we demand are you go to class and work on basketball, and that's what the guys want, too. You can't underestimate the power of peer pressure.''

As the word gets out, other top players are arriving. Sophomore guard Blake Stepp, who is working his way back from knee surgery, was the Oregon state player of the year and the West Coast Conference's freshman of the year. Freshman Rony Turiaf (6-9, 235 pounds), from Martinique, is the type of athlete who rarely ends up in the West Coast Conference. And the Zags already have signed 6-8 Sean Mallon of Spokane, considered one of the top 50 players in the country.

``We're involved with as good of kids on the national level as anybody,'' said Few, in his third year as head coach and his 13th at Gonzaga. ``After the (Elite Eight), people would say we caught lightning in a bottle. The next year everyone said, `That was a heck of a senior class you guys had.' After last year, there was a marked difference in the illogical minds of AAU coaches of how they viewed us.''

That view is becoming clearer. The Zags, who lose only Dickau, Hernandez and Reasons next year, are looking more like the next Nevada Las Vegas than the last Cinderella.

HOOP NOTES

By Billy Witz

BY THE NUMBERS

7

The number of Jackson State players who were suspended for the fall semester after being accused of sexually assaulting a female student on campus last month.

17

Winning percentage (11-53) by Southwestern Athletic Conference teams.

82

Number of consecutive non-conference home victories by Maryland.

WORTH THE DRIVE

Southern Illinois at Cal State Northridge, Sunday at 4 p.m.

If you don't know about the Salukis now, you will in March. They're 7-1 with victories over St. Louis, Iowa State and Indiana, and their only loss was 75-72 to Illinois. Guard Kent Williams is one of the nation's best-kept secrets.

WHO'S HOT

The West Coast Conference, which has wins over Pacific-10 schools UCLA and USC (Pepperdine), Washington (Gonzaga) and Oregon (Portland).

WHO'S NOT

South Florida coach Seth Greenberg, who, after a loss to Florida last weekend, fell to 0-26 against ranked teams since he arrived six years ago from Long Beach State.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Led by Dan Dickau (left), Gonzaga is showing it's no Cinderella anymore; instead, the Bulldogs are competing with some of the West's best.

(2) Paul Westphal (right) and his Pepperdine Waves have posted two big upsets against hometown favorites UCLA and USC.

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press

Box:

HOOP NOTES (see text)