SPOKANE, Wash. -- Dan Dickau took 3-pointers, mid-range floating jumpers, or drove straight to the basket. He did so whenever he wanted, no matter how big the situation. The bigger the game, the better Dickau seemed to play.

And if he didn't make the shot? He wasn't afraid to take another on the next possession.

Few players in the country could do what he did over the course of 40 minutes. Or, in the case of the West Coast Conference title game, down the stretch. With Gonzaga trailing by 11 points in the second half against Pepperdine, Dickau scored 19 points in six minutes as the Zags took control of the game and clinched their fourth straight WCC title.

So, think the Zags might have a tough time replacing Dickau?

	The Replacements
	Making up for the loss of Dan Dickau (20.8 ppg; 4.7 apg, 48% 3FGs) won't be easy. These three Zags figure to shoulder most of the load. (2001-02 stats) Blake Stepp Junior Guard 6-4 | 192 9.2 ppg 3.9 apg 37% 3FGs Zach Gourde Senior Forward 6-8 | 249 13.3 ppg 6.4 rpg 54% FGs Cory Violette Junior Forward 6-8 | 255 12.8 ppg 8.3 rpg

Ahh, yeah.

Dickau just might be the toughest player to replace in the country. Period.

Yes, Duke needs to find a replacement for the 2002 national player of the year and its leader, point guard Jay Williams. Cincinnati is searching for someone to take, and make, the big shots Steve Logan handled last year. And Final Four teams Indiana and Kansas lost their leading scorers in Jared Jeffries and Drew Gooden, respectively.

But Dickau was Mr. Everything for Gonzaga, a scoring point who was never too far from delivering the winning shot or a game-changing pass. He was, after all, Gonzaga's first and only first-team All-American.

"Dan provided so many things to this team,'' said fifth-year senior Zach Gourde. "He wasn't just a scorer or a point guard, but he was a big emotional influence. He was the leader, the social director. It's hard to replace someone who filled so many dimensions."

"Dan was very special here," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of Dickau, who was also one of five Wooden Award finalists last season. "He had the ball in his hands a lot. We won't just miss his scoring but his decisions, too."

So, after all that praise and admiration for the NBA first-round pick and Atlanta Hawks rookie, how can Gonzaga actually believe it could be better this season without him? How can the Zags begin to replace him?

Collectively.

"Last year, if Dan went down we were done," Few said. "This year we've got the depth at every spot to actually absorb injuries, foul trouble or sickness, which has a tendency to hit you at some point during the year."

But who will take the shots when the game is on the line?

Apparently, junior guard Blake Stepp (35.6 percent on 3s, 9.2 ppg) is the first option. And junior sharp-shooter Kyle Bankhead (41.2 on 3s) is ready if Stepp is covered.

That was the trend at least in practice recently, with the ball being whipped around the perimeter to Stepp or Bankhead, or kicked back out to one of them on the perimeter after it went inside. But Stepp doesn't sound too convincing, even if his teammates are starting to believe that he'll be the first choice.

"I'll give it to Blake," sophomore forward Ronny Turiaf said. "I'll just get the rebound."

"Hopefully it will be me," said Stepp, who is healthy for the first time since his freshman year after struggling with a bum knee as a sophomore. "I've been working on my shooting for the first time in two summers and getting a lot of shots up. Hopefully (my teammates) will find out after I hit a couple of big ones that they can be confident in me shooting late in a game."

Stepp, however, is still more of a traditional system shooter, getting the ball off a skip pass or a screen out of the flex offense. He's not like Dickau, who could dribble down the lane, bounce the ball a few times to get open, and then hit a deep 3-pointer or create a little space for himself with a stutter step and pull-back jumper. Stepp will have to play the point, or at least get the ball over halfcourt to jump-start the offense. When he's not on the court, or when he's sharing time with senior Winston Brooks (out of the WCC last season with a wrist injury), Brooks will handle the ball.

"I'm not going to score 30 points a night, but Blake can," Brooks said. "We'll set it up for Blake, but if no one else takes those kind of shots, then I'm not afraid to."

"It still remains to be seen who will take the shots Dan did," Gourde said. "Blake is the most capable, the most comfortable with it. But, at the point, Winston provides the energy Dan did and the quickness on defense that Dan didn't even have."

	“	I'm not going to score 30 points a night, but Blake can. We'll set it up for Blake, but if no one else takes those kind of shots, then I'm not afraid to. ”
		— Winston Brooks, Gonzaga senior guard

But who says the points Dickau delivered have to come from those replacing him in the lineup? Why not go inside early and often? This is, by the way, the biggest and most skilled frontcourt the Zags have had under Few.

The 6-foot-8, 249-pound Gourde is a traditional back-to-the-basket scorer, as is 6-8, 250-pound junior Cory Violette. Both can hunker down in the post, spin and score. Sophomore Ronny Turiaf (6-9) is an active offensive player who continues to develop low-post moves, especially a baby hook.

Added to the mix this year is 6-11, 270-pound Colorado transfer Richard Fox, who is more of a high-post center, and 6-9, 218-pound Dustin Villepigue, a scrappy redshirt freshman still trying to find out where and how to score around the basket. But Villepigue will screen and run the offense with few mistakes. Even 6-5 junior college transfer Tony Skinner can work the baseline for a layup and crash the offensive backboard to give them a bit more athleticism around the hoop at big guard.

"We're the biggest frontline we've ever had here," Violette said. "We're all beating each other down in the post. But it's a chemistry thing. There are five of us, and you can't play five (big) guys"

None of the frontline players is unskilled, and each can extend the defense with a perimeter jumper.

"It's the most inside-oriented we've been," Few said. "They're all so skilled and added bulk like Ronny, who is up to 242 pounds (from 228). They've all done a great job with individual work. It's exciting because it's different since we've been so guard oriented for so long."

And what about the off-court social skills Dickau displayed as a true leader? Who is this year's social butterfly for the team to follow? Gourde and Fox.

"Right now the social role falls to me," Gourde said. "I'm the only one with a house off campus and the biggest space for us to congregate, relax, cook dinners and get together."

And leave it to Fox to match the frontcourt players' style of play to their various hairstyles.

"We all play different and we look different," Fox said. "I'm one of the youngest guys, but I look the oldest because I'm losing my hair. And that's my game, old school. Zach is just out there (with his long, flowing curly hair) and so is his game. Cory is clean cut and his game is, too. Ronny is just wild (with braids or at times a very tall Afro), and Dustin (with a longer, tight-curled blond mane) is just trying to figure out what to do with (the hair) and his game."

Gourde admits it would be hard to find a "stranger collection" of college basketball players. And this comes from a player who, according to Few, reads about Zen one minute, picks up a triathlon magazine the next and then hacks into someone else's computer program. (We won't get into his painted toe nails, or his constant pushing of green tea on Few.)

"This group has character," Gourde said.

And apparently a hunger to get back to the Sweet 16 following a disappointing end (first-round loss to Wyoming) after the best season (29-4 and No. 6 in the rankings) in the school's history.

"We were at a point where we were building a dynasty," Gourde said. "We got knocked off and this group has a lot of pride. We want to prove to the players who came before us four years ago that we can do it, too. We can be better, potentially a better team. We've got eight guys who on any given night could go off for 20 or 30 and all score in a different way."

Dan who?

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.