Karnowski makes offense hum
Gonzaga center passes expertly to fuel points from three-point land
SAN JOSE — Six different Gonzaga players combined to make 12 3-point baskets Saturday against a Xavier defense that had shut down perimeter shooters in the first three rounds of the NCAA tournament.
Przemek Karnowski had none of them.
But when asked to explain the Bulldogs’ success in an 83-59 victory in the West Regional final, Xavier coach Chris Mack pointed to Karnowski, the Zags’ senior center from Torun, Poland. “He’s the reason,” Mack said.
The Bulldogs run their offense through their big men, and no one is bigger than the 7-foot-1, 300-pound Karnowski. And he’s not just big.
“No team that we’ve played has had a passer like Karnowski,” Mack said. “He knows where everybody on his team is. When he caches the ball in the mid-post, he’s just going to turn and survey very patiently and he’s going to find out who’s open.
“If you suck in with an extra defender, he sprays it out and they get open 3s.”
Karnowski’s modest total of three assists hardly tells the story.
“It starts with Przemek,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of his center, whose first name is pronounced SHEM-ick. “You’re going to have to make a decision: Are you going to double him? Because he’s going to find guys. He’s like the Magic Johnson of 5 men.”
The Bulldogs’ ball movement consistently created good perimeter shots. Not all of them were wide open, but Nigel Williams-Goss, Josh Perkins and former Cal star Jordan Mathews shot in rhythm all afternoon.
Williams-Goss was 4 for 7, Perkins 3 for 7 and Mathews — who made the game-winning 3-pointer against West Virginia on Thursday — made 2 of 7. Gonzaga finished 12 of 24 against a Xavier defense that had allowed three previous NCAA tournament foes to shoot 24 percent (18 for 75) from the arc,
“Their ability to pass the ball is special,” Mack said. “That ball just gets pinged around. A majority of the teams we play hold it a little bit longer.”
And, of course, the ball has to go in. “When the guards step up and make shots like they did tonight,” Few said, “it makes us hard to guard.”
Former USF coach n Phil Mathews was at SAP to watch his son, Jordan Mathews, the graduate transfer from Cal. Jordan scored 11 points against Xavier.
“It’s unbelievable,” Phil Mathews said. “It’s everything he wanted to do. Go to the NCAA tournament, get a chance to go to the Final Four. It’s a dream come true for him.”
Phil Mathews, who coached USF to its most recent NCAA bid in 1998, currently is head coach at Riverside City College. He was in the building Thursday when his son hit the goahead shot in the semifinal win over West Virginia.
“I knew that when Nigel (Williams-Goss) threw the ball to him that he was going to shoot it. He lives for those moments, so I was very happy for him.”
And it’s not over yet. “One more week!” a proud dad beamed.
The Bulldogs opened n the game with Williams assigned to defend Trevon Bluiett, who averaged 25 points through Xavier’s first three tournament games. But Gonzaga mixed in a zone alignment to help limit the hot-shooting Musketeers to 35.5 percent and put a lid on Bluiett’s production.
He shot 3 for 14 and scored just 10 points.
“I thought in the first half when they went to the zone it really bothered us. In the second half we couldn’t score at all,” Mack said.
The matchup was tough for Xavier because Karnowski, Williams and Gonzaga’s other big men were able to handle penetration without help.
“That’s where their discipline comes in,” Mack said. “That’s why they’re the No 1 defensive team in the country.”
Gonzaga forward n Johnathan Williams, who had 19 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots in the championship game, was named most outstanding player of the West Regional.
“His damage for the most part was from 3 feet and in — offensive rebounds, post-ups, tip-ins, finishing at the bottom of our zone,” Mack said. “He’s a talented player.”
Williams was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Williams-Goss and Mathews, along with Xavier’s Bluiett and J.P. Macura.
Mack was able to put n aside his own disappointment to appreciate what a Final Four bid means to Few, who also coaches at a small, non-football school.
“It’s a doozy. Don’t act like it comes around all the time,” Mack said. “I joked about it the other day, but for coach Few to even have to answer a question about a monkey on his back, I mean, he’s at a small Jesuit school in a league that gets one or two teams to the NCAA tournament every year.
“That’s why I took so long in the handshake line to talk to him, because he’s a friend of mine.”