The fourth-ranked Bulldogs, 25-2 and winners of 18 straight games, open play in the West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament in Sunday's 9 p.m. semifinal against the winner of tonight's San Francisco-Santa Clara game at Santa Clara University's Leavey Center.
And when they do, Blake Stepp will be the stoic young man with his finger firmly planted on the pulse of the Bulldogs' offense.
The 6-foot-4, 195-pound senior, a two-time WCC player of the year, has overcome career-threatening knee problems that required two surgeries to become, perhaps, the greatest point guard ever to play for a school that has produced future NBA hall of famer John Stockton, Matt Santangelo and Dan Dickau.
"He's simply the best that's ever been here," Bulldogs coach Mark Few said of Stepp, who has started 120 of 122 games since arriving at GU in the fall of 2000 following a South Eugene High School career that was even more brilliant than his older brother's. "We have a lot of different offensive sets we run, and Blake knows where every player on the team is supposed to be at any given moment."
And such sentiments don't stop with Few.
"He's the best player I've ever played with," said teammate Kyle Bankhead, a fifth-year senior. "He's got such a great mind for the game."
"I've never played with anybody better at that spot -- or against anybody better, for that matter," said senior center Cory Violette, who joined Stepp as Few's first two recruits after he took over the Bulldogs program five years ago. "We played against T.J. Ford (from Texas) in Alaska and Blake's got almost all of T.J.'s game, except for the shake-and-bake. And he can shoot it, too.
"He sees everything and just kind of makes the game happen at his pace. He's in control all the time and sees plays ahead of when they happen."
Heading into the WCC tournament, which the top-seeded and unbeaten regular-season champion Bulldogs are favored to win, the remarkably versatile Stepp is averaging 14.7 points, 6.9 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. He is shooting 46.4 percent from the field -- including 42.5 percent (74 of 174) from 3-point range -- and a team-best 84 percent (63 of 75) from the free-throw line.
He is the Bulldogs' career leader with 283 3-point baskets and ranks No. 2, behind Santangelo, with 620 career assists. His 149 steals are the third-most in school history, and with 1,614 career points he will almost certainly move past Richie Frahm (1,621) and Jeff Brown (1,646) into fourth place on the Zags' career scoring list before the season ends.
