The Life Of Rillie

ALTHOUGH TOO SMALL to entertain hopes of making a name for himself in the NBA, Australian John Rillie and his shooting have brought postseason life - and recognition - to Gonzaga. -----------------------------------------------------------------

SPOKANE - The Gonzaga Bulldogs are in the NCAA tournament for the first time because they followed some simple instructions from their coach in the West Coast Conference tournament:

"Get the round thing to the bald thing."

The round thing was the basketball. The bald thing was senior guard John Rillie, who made 20 of 28 three-pointers and 22 of 24 free throws on his way to averaging 32 points in the three games.

Rillie is a 23-year-old Australian hoopaholic with a shaved head and a textbook jumpshot - beautiful arc and enough backspin to risk skid marks.

Rillie's out-of-body performance in the WCC Tournament in Santa Clara is one of the best performances by a college basketball player in state history.

"I'll always be wondering whether I can ever put three more games together like that," Rillie said.

Tomorrow night in Salt Lake City, Rillie and the Zags (21-8) will try to stay hot against Maryland (24-7). They are expected to be first-round fodder for the 10th-ranked Terrapins and mega-center Joe Smith.

Gonzaga has taken an improbable route to the tournament - the Zags started the conference season 0-6, finished 7-7 then peaked during the WCC tournament with come-from-behind wins over San Diego, St. Mary's and Portland. But nothing matches the improbable route Rillie took to the Jesuit school best known for a second baseman-turned-crooner named Bing Crosby and NBA guard John Stockton.

Rillie grew up in Toowoomba, Australia, playing basketball, cricket and Australian rules football. After completing high school, he worked in a meat-packing plant, a supermarket and a burger restaurant to save $20,000 so he could go to the United States to play college basketball.

He talked to American players traveling in Australia and then picked Tacoma Community College, where the coach was Ron Billings.

Billings resigned after Rillie's first season but thought enough of the Aussie to recommend that Gonzaga Coach Dan Fitzgerald give him a scholarship.

Rillie was the only non-senior starter last year on a team led by ex-Husky Jeff Brown that won the WCC regular-season title for the first time in Gonzaga history.

The Zags were upset in the semifinals of the league tournament but regrouped to beat Stanford in Palo Alto in the first round of the NIT. They lost by two points to Kansas State in the second round.

Rillie is a gym rat in the tradition of Stockton. He plays in pickup games at lunch and has his own key to the gym for late-night shooting practice.

Unlike Stockton, Rillie doesn't appear to have an NBA future. The skinny 6-foot-5, 170-pound shooting guard is nothing special at creating his own scoring opportunities or playing defense. He is likely to play professionally in Australia and dreams of making the Australian Olympic team.

Rillie learned when he was being recruited by Gonzaga that the Spokane school is almost unknown in Western Washington.

Gonzaga is a 108-year-old institution on the bank of the Spokane River with a total enrollment of 4,790 (3,032 undergrad). It is expensive (about $18,000 a year including room and board) and tough academically. The freshman class has an average SAT score of 1,060.

The NCAA berth is a breakthrough event for the school and program. Fitzgerald recalled a conversation with a friend this week.

"I said it wasn't that big a deal and then I started laughing and I said, `The hell it isn't.' It is very significant."

The berth puts Gonzaga in the state spotlight and also eliminates the Zags from the list of 10 schools including Army and William & Mary, that have been Division I for more than 35 years and never have been in the tournament.

The irony is that Fitzgerald doesn't consider this one of his better teams.

"It certainly isn't among our first five teams," said Fitzgerald, who has been on the campus for 17 years, 13 of them as coach and athletic director.

Until this season, what little national publicity Gonzaga basketball has received has been because of the team's high grades or Stockton. In the 1990s, more than 80 percent of Gonzaga players have graduated.

The tournament berth is a stage for Fitzgerald, an engaging man who will take his quick wit onto the national scene.

"The kids who come here aren't corrupted by the recruiting system," he said. "They are guys who are kneeling down every night saying, `Thank you, Lord, for giving me a chance to play Division I.' "

Fitzgerald seeks intelligent players who can succeed in the classroom, but their passion must be basketball.

"I tell parents, `I don't want your kid coming here if the most important thing in his life is school.' "

Fitzgerald can be that blunt because of his high graduation rate.

One of his favorite lines to recruits when they ask about Spokane's cold winters: "It doesn't snow in the library or the gym."

Fitzgerald, who describes his bouts with skin cancer the past three years as "not life threatening but pretty scary," doesn't mind the label "throwback coach." He demands that things be done his way.

During games, Fitzgerald is animated and his face turns red. He yells "THAT'S NOT US!" when a Zag makes an uncharacteristic mistake such as taking a dumb or selfish shot.

Some fans disagreed with his decision this year not to go for an NCAA record for three-point goals against the University of San Francisco. He thought it would be unsportsmanlike because the game, which ended 106-67, already was a romp when the Zags had their 20th three-pointer. (The crowd thought the record, actually 28, was 23).

Fans complained that more three-pointers would have put Gonzaga on ESPN highlights.

Well, now the Zags are in the tournament and on CBS. And if the Wonder from Down Under stays hot and Gonzaga throws a scare into Maryland, they might make all kinds of highlight shows, even if they lose.