|
|
|
|
Monday, March 12, 2001
Dan Dickau's Take: The tournament caps a great season
By Dan Dickau
Special to ABC Sports Online
Gonzaga garnered national attention two years ago when they reached the Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion Connecticut. Last year, the Zags followed that with a trip to the Sweet Sixteen. This year, they hope to make noise from the South Region as the 12th seed. The Tournament starts for the Zags on Friday against Virginia. Throughout Gonzaga's run in the Tournament, Zags guard Dan Dickau will file a diary for ABC Sports Online. This is his first submission, following Gonzaga's victory in the West Coast Conference Tournament.
It feels great to be back in the NCAA Tournament. People weren't expecting a lot out of us because we had nine new faces and only three guys with much experience in this program, but we believed in ourselves. We had a rough stretch, but we turned it around when we needed to and are playing good basketball right now.
|  | | Dan Dickau won't be sitting on the bench for Gonzaga's tournament run this season. |
If you asked Casey Calvary, Mark Spink and myself in October, we would have said we expected to be back in the NCAA Tournament. That's just positive thinking on all of our parts. We knew we had pieces to get there, and things may not go as we expected them to or wanted them to throughout the season, but we knew we had what it takes to get there. We just had to come together and we've done that the last couple of months.
It was hard a year ago to sit there during the Tournament. But I knew when I made my decision to transfer from the University of Washington, I would have to sit out those games, so I was mentally prepared. But then they make the run in the tournament and you say, "Here they go." That part was hard because I wanted to be on the floor with those guys. I wasn't able to go, though, because of the transfer rule that you can't travel. That was even harder. At the same time, it gave me a chance to sit back and reflect about how much basketball means to me. And I don't take things for granted.
When I was at Washington, we were never able to beat the University of Arizona and this year we had a great shot to beat them and things didn't go our way down the stretch. It would be great to get another matchup with them, although they are playing good basketball right now. Stanford and UCLA on the West Coast are also playing well. If you look at some of the national teams you grow up thinking you always want to play -- teams like Kentucky, Michigan State, Duke and North Carolina -- those are just some of the names that quickly come to mind and you realize they are going to be in the NCAA Tournament every year. We might have a chance to play one or two of those teams and we're going to have to come out with our best game and try to take it to them if we happen to have that matchup.
Friday's practice was no different than any other. We had a few days off, but everyone still came down to the gym and got their own little workouts in. We just got back to doing the same things we've been doing the last few months in practice. It was kind of nice to get going again.
I sometimes thought about what this week would be like if we didn't win the WCC Tournament, and I didn't like what I was thinking at the time. We felt going into the WCC Tournament, we had a good argument to get into the NCAA Tournament even if we didn't win simply because of the way we went through the regular season. We had a few stumbling blocks but we played great down the stretch. That's usually a big consideration by the committee. But we didn't want to sit and wait on Selection Sunday. We wanted to win on Monday and know we're in and just figure out where and who we're going to play.
|
|
|
|
ESPN.com:
HELP |
ADVERTISER INFO |
CONTACT US |
TOOLS |
SITE MAP
Copyright ©2001 ESPN Internet Group. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and Safety Information are applicable to this site. Employment opportunities at ESPN.com.
|
 |
 Blake Stepp dishes to Dan Dickau, who knocks down a Gonzaga 3-pointer.
avi: 975 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Gonzaga's Blake Stepp drives to the hoop for the bucket and foul.
avi: 927 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Gonzaga's Dan Dickau finds Casey Calvary in the lane for two.
avi: 1250 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
|
|
