Making first WCC start, Gonzaga’s Mario Saint-Supery thrives with extended minutes against USF: ‘It was time to reward him’ | Rewind

Feb. 19—SAN FRANCISCO — Gonzaga’s surprising setback at Portland two weeks ago will follow Mark Few’s team into Selection Sunday, but if you looked at an updated version of the NCAA NET rankings on Thursday morning — one of the evaluation tools committee members will use to seed and sort NCAA Tournament teams — it may have been easy to forget an 87-80 loss to the Pilots even happened in the first place.

Gonzaga was ranked No. 6 in the NET rankings prior to its gloomy night at the Chiles Center. The Zags slid to No. 9 with a Quad 3 loss, but have steadily worked their way up the totem pole with four comfortable wins in West Coast Conference play, including three road victories.

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If you refreshed the NET rankings on Thursday, you probably noticed Gonzaga bumped up to No. 5. That’s two positions higher than where the Zags were before Wednesday’s 80-59 victory over San Francisco at the Chase Center and one spot higher than where they sat prior to the Portland loss.

The Zags still have a few more weeks to build their NCAA Tournament resume and three more games to secure an outright WCC regular-season title.

For now, we’ll take a minute to review how Gonzaga picked up its 26th win, thanks in large part to contributions from a young point guard and veteran forward.

Super(y) night

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Few has insisted this season — and on multiple occasions — that fans, reporters and followers of his program shouldn’t read into the different starting lineup combinations Gonzaga’s used this season.

It may not be wise to make any sweeping conclusions about Mario Saint-Supery’s first start since late December, but the point guard’s minutes total against San Francisco and seemed noteworthy and potentially a sign of things to come as the Zags enter the final week of the regular season.

Saint-Supery started for the first time since Dec. 21 against Oregon and played 33 minutes for the second time in as many games. Junior point guard Braeden Smith got his 14th straight start on Saturday at Santa Clara, but was replaced early in the first half by Saint-Supery, who was also part of Gonzaga’s five-man unit to open the second half at the Leavey Center.

Over the last two games, Saint-Supery has played 66 minutes to Smith’s nine and scored 22 points with 11 assists and eight rebounds compared to zero points, two assists and one rebound for his junior teammate. Saint-Supery finished with 14 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals against USF.

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“I thought Mario was really, really solid, he played heavy minutes tonight,” Few said on Wednesday. “I thought he did a really nice job. Six assists, one turnover, made his shots and was pretty solid on the defensive end.”

Prior to the Santa Clara game, Saint-Supery had exceeded 30 minutes just once this season, tallying 32 against Alabama at the Players Era Festival. The Malaga, Spain, native has been one of the most reliable perimeter shooters on a team that hasn’t been particularly strong in that area this season and accounted for two of Gonzaga’s five 3-pointers on Wednesday.

“He’s just been playing good, he’s playing good,” Few said. “He’s been playing good in big moments, so it was time to reward him a little bit.”

More history for Ike

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Outside of Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett, nobody in the WCC has seen more of Graham Ike than San Francisco’s Chris Gerlufsen, whose team matched up with the all-conference forward for the seventh time in three seasons on Wednesday.

Ike’s always been a challenging scout for the Dons, but has generally done most of his work within 10 feet of the basket while playing anywhere from 23-30 minutes per game in matchups with USF.

The forward’s offensive game and stamina have both evolved during his time in Spokane — things Gerlufsen and the Dons noticed on Wednesday, when Ike hit a variety of pull-up jump shots and step-back 3’s while logging a team-high 36 minutes.

“Graham Ike is one helluva player,” Gerflusen said. “His development of not only of his game, but his body, his conditioning. He never would’ve been able to play that many minutes. That says a lot about him, how he’s wired and how he’s built. I have a lot of respect for that. Just his ability to affect the game at the rim, at the midrange, now he’s making 3’s. Playing with a lot of swagger and a lot of confidence and certainly playing like a First Team All-American in my eyes.”

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Ike continues to make history for Gonzaga in his final year of eligibility. The Aurora, Colorado, native became the first GU player since Adam Morrison and Derek Raivio to score at least 20 points in eight consecutive games, tallying 22 points on 10 of 17 shooting and 2 of 5 from the 3-point line on Wednesday.

“I think there’s a lot of traffic in the paint right now and a lot of different coverages in there, so he’s stepping out, he’s showing he can make those shots,” Few said. “For the most part, most of them were pretty good shots. But there at the end, he kind of went back to the bread and butter and got in there and got himself some shots around the basket.”

Back to the Bay?

Few suspects his Gonzaga program will be back in the San Francisco Bay Area for future games after it leaves the West Coast Conference. There’s a good chance the Zags will be back at the Chase Center at some point.

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It’s unlikely, however, the opponents will be San Francisco, Saint Mary’s or Santa Clara — three of GU’s toughest contenders in the WCC over the last 30-plus years.

“It’s a great stop on the circuit and it’s a great city, I’ve got some great friends here now with Steve (Kerr) … Steph (Curry), great shared experiences with,” said Few, who worked under the Golden State Warriors coach and alongside the NBA sharpshooter two summers ago at the Paris Olympics. “It’s not like we won’t be back. We’ll play some one-off games here and we’ll be around. There’s NCAA Tournament games here coming very soon, there’s all that so I think we’ll be back.”

The Zags extended one of their most impressive streaks on Wednesday by beating the Dons for the 35th straight game.

“It’s unbelievable, our guys deserve all the credit,” Few said. “… They’ve had some great teams, some great coaches. Chris does a really, really good job and does a lot of different things offensively, a lot of different things defensively you don’t see. To be able to handle that all these years … Kyle Smith, Todd Golden and kind of the whole run.”