Gonzaga’s Dickau named to AP’s All-America team

Associated Press

SPOKANE – A week of roller-coaster emotions continued for Gonzaga on Tuesday as the team departed for Albuquerque, N.M., to prepare for Thursday’s game against Wyoming in the NCAA basketball tournament.

The Bulldogs, ranked sixth in the nation, got on the airplane to the news that senior guard Dan Dickau was one of five members on the Associated Press All America team, the first such honor in school history.

“I can’t imagine it,” Dickau said. “Obviously it’s the biggest compliment in college basketball. You dream about it and set goals, not knowing if those goals will be reached. But most of all, it’s great for this program.”

A transfer from Washington, Dickau averaged 20.6 points and 4.9 assists, while shooting 47.7 percent from 3-point range this season and was named the West Coast Conference player of the year.

Gonzaga has had five honorable mention All America selections in the past, including guard John Stockton in 1984, but no other first-team choice.

The Bulldogs have been the talk of Basketball Nation since Sunday, when they were awarded only a No. 6 seed in the West Region, despite a 29-3 record and a Top 10 ranking most of the last half of the season.

Coach Mark Few said Tuesday that the outpouring of support since then has been overwhelming.

“I wish I could show you the faxes and the phone messages from 100 different college coaches, most of them at the major level, using some strong words,” Few said.

“The beauty of it is it seems like the people who spend a lot of time looking at college basketball, and analyze it down to the most minuscule details, have been overwhelmingly in support,” Few said.

“It makes you feel good.”

Typical of the criticism heaped on the NCAA tournament selection committee came from John Feinstein, a former president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and author of “A Season on the Brink.” He said Gonzaga’s low seed is “the single worst thing a committee has ever done to a team in this tournament.”

College basketball web sites, television sports shows and talk radio have been filled with people angered by the slighting of a mid-major team that has made three straight deep runs into the NCAA tournament.

In Spokane, there were plenty of jokes that the Bulldogs were “Enron-ed,” that the NCAA selection committee was composed of accountants from Arthur Andersen, or that French figure skating judges might be involved

While a newspaper speculated that Few might be tired of being an underdog and jump to a major program, the third-year coach said that is not the case.

“We’re building something really special over here and there is no need to think we can’t keep doing what we are doing,” said Few, whose 81-19 record is the most wins by a third-year coach in Division 1 history.

Many experts predicted Gonzaga would be a third seed. But NCAA selectors apparently couldn’t get past Gonzaga’s relatively weak West Coast Conference affiliation, especially in a year when only Gonzaga and Pepperdine fielded consistently good teams.

Gonzaga had an RPI of eight after a tough nonconference schedule, but ended up with an RPI of 21 even as they won their past 14 games. The reason: Their overall schedule is rated the 153rd toughest in the nation. Arizona, which would be Gonzaga’s second-round opponent if both teams win, played the toughest schedule.

Gonzaga is 7-3 in NCAA tournament games the past three seasons heading into Thursday’s game against 11th-seed Wyoming.

The Cowboys (21-8) are a run-and-gun team making its first NCAA appearance in 14 years. They are led by swingman Marcus Bailey, who averaged 13 points per game.

Forward Josh Davis averaged 12 points and 7 rebounds per game, and was recruited by Gonzaga out of high school in Salem, Ore. He was an honorable mention All America on Tuesday.