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Still sweet 'Zags handle Sycamores, return to '16'
Updated: Sunday March 18, 2001 7:18 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Gonzaga was trailing Indiana State by three points in the second half Sunday when Dan Dickau pulled up for a quick 3-pointer that banged off the rim. Mark Few, Gonzaga's coach, had seen enough. He immediately called timeout and yelled two words at his players: "Settle down!" All the fans in the Pyramid heard it -- and so did the Bulldogs. Casey Calvary scored 24 points and Dickau added 20, making all 12 of his free throws, as 12th-seeded Gonzaga beat No. 13 Indiana State 85-68 at the South Regional to advance to a third straight regional semifinal. The Bulldogs (26-6) will play either top-seeded Michigan State or No. 9 Fresno State in Atlanta on Friday. Gonzaga had some trouble early against the Sycamores (22-12), whose first-round defeat of Oklahoma was their first tournament win since Larry Bird led the team to the 1979 championship game. After Marcus Howard's 3-pointer put Indiana State up 51-48 and Dickau missed his 3-pointer with 11:32 to go, Few called his players over and gave them a stern lecture.
"Every once and a while we have to tame these wild dogs. They run a little too fast," Few said. "At that time we were beginning to take control of the game. We had some advantages that we needed to at least explore a little bit before we take too quick shots." Dickau agreed it was a good move to stop play. "That was a questionable shot. I deserved him to tell me to settle down," Dickau said. "As far as the rest of the game goes, we started to go to Casey more which is what we needed to do." Afterward, Calvary and freshman Kyle Bankhead each hit 3s and Dickau made a smooth spinning move down the lane to put the Bulldogs ahead 56-51 with 9:17 remaining. A barrage of 3-pointers from both sides followed, with Indiana State's Michael Menser hitting two 3s sandwiched around one by Calvary. Matt Renn's 3-pointer for the Sycamores tied it at 60, but Dickau followed with a pull-up jumper and two free throws to put Gonzaga ahead 64-60 with 7:23 to go. Gourde scored 15 points, and Alex Hernandez 12 for the Bulldogs, who beat second-seeded Stanford in 1999 and then No. 2 St. John's last year en route to the round of 16. With Gonzaga's continued NCAA tournament success, Few hopes the next time the Zags will get more respect. "I was very disappointed with the seed they gave us. It was just a lack of knowing how good this team is and maybe how good our conference is," Few said. "It's silly to think if we go 13-1 in our conference that we're not better than a fourth, or fifth, or sixth or seventh place team out of one of the football schools' leagues." Indiana State, the Zags' first lower-seeded opponent in the tournament, got 16 points each from Renn and Howard, while Menser added 15. Renn and Menser, the Sycamores' two senior starters who played in the school's only consecutive NCAA appearances, tried to be positive after the loss. "We have nothing to hang our heads about," Renn said. "We were in the game until the last four or five minutes." Indiana State coach Royce Waltman said he was sad to see Renn and Menser leave but proud of the rebuilding they were part of. "I'm still extremely pleased for these two guys here and our team for what they've done in the past couple of weeks. We were a little bit down at the end of the season. We came back and won our conference and won a game here," Waltman said. Indiana State led 37-32 after a tight and fast-paced first half. But Dickau, who didn't have a field goal in the opening 20 minutes, had a rebound basket and made a free throw to start Gonzaga on a 9-0 run to go ahead 45-43 with 14:48 left. Gonzaga looked like the inexperienced tournament team in the first half with sloppy plays, missed shots and 13 turnovers. It gave Indiana State reason to believe it could win. "We knew where they were coming from but at the same time we came out ready for them and respected their players," Calvary said. Dickau, who scored 21 points in the first half against Virginia in the first round, only scored on three free throws and had four turnovers by halftime Sunday. The Zags, who average 14.3 turnovers a game, had just two in the second half.
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