One keeper of a program.(COLLEGE BASKETBALL)

While every other college coach is fishing metaphorically during July, Gonzaga's Mark Few could be fishing literally. He could be out on the Pacific Northwest streams he loves, casting flies and trying to catch a summer breeze and a few hungry trout.

He already has bagged his limit of 2007 recruits.

* Small forward Austin Daye of lrvine, Calif., might become the most decorated high school recruit to choose Gonzaga.

* Shooting guard Steven Gray of Bainbridge Island, Wash., is the owner of a picture-perfect jumper.

* Center Robert Sacre of North Vancouver, British Columbia, is 6-11 and was starting to excite several big-time schools before the Zags landed him last autumn.

Each is a top 100 prospect and could climb to rankings not previously reached by Gonzaga recruits. Other coaches will spend the NCAA's summer evaluation period searching for players to fill vacancies, but the Zags mostly will work on finding a skilled big man for the 2008 class while keeping an eye on seniors-to-be just in case a spot opens.

This is the latest step in Gonzaga's ascent to major-power status. The program is conquering parts of the game that appeared at the start of the decade to be far beyond its reach. In 1999-2000, Few's first season as coach, the Zags still were an overachieving mid-major no one wanted to face in the NCAA Tournament. Now, they are as much a part of the elite as the Bushes, Kennedys and Rockefellers. They demurely asked to enter the party and wound up picking the band, fond and decor.