Randy Dickau barely got a foot inside the family’s front door in Vancouver, Wash., before running into his 4-year-old son, Dan. The 2'6", 40-pound small forward, usually in a No.25 Portland jersey (to honor Jerome Kersey), immediately dragged Dad down to their indoor court, a three-foot-high hoop in the basement. But Dan wouldn’t shoot until the play-by-play man (Randy, of course) started the countdown: Five. Four. Three. Two ... When Dad got to one, Dan put up the buzzer-beater. It was usually a game-winner.

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Not much has changed in 19 years. Sure, Dan’s hooping at Gonzaga now, where the good folks have put up regulation rims and an actual game clock. But the six-foot Dickau, now a grizzled fifth-year point guard, is still knocking down game-winners: a three-pointer to beat St. Joe’s on Dec. 31; four final-minute points to dispense of Texas on Nov. 23. In crunch time, the Zags have only one option. "The shots he makes aren’t wide-open jumpers, either," says coach Mark Few. "He’s being chased out of double-teams, taking 30-foot fading spinners. But they all seem to go in."

The intricate new defensive tactics of his opponents -- Get out there and rough Dan up! -- have yet to rile him. Why should they? Dickau shoots about 88% from the stripe (he was averaging 20.6 ppg as of March 1), and he practices hundreds of situational jumpers each day, including ones where he simulates getting hacked. “If you do something enough,” he says, “it starts to feel natural.” But one man’s "enough" is another’s "too much," which is why Few, trying to keep his star fresh, banned Dickau from the gym for three weeks last August after he returned from the World University Games in China. "I don’t want to say he’s fanatical," Few says, "but he takes basketball very seriously."

Of course, that diligence is why the Zags have locked up a high Tourney seed in their quest for a fourth straight trip to the Sweet 16. It’s also why going farther would be better. "I run it through my head every day," Dickau says. "National championship game, guy in my face, clock winding down ...

"I’m not afraid."

This article appears in the March 18 issue of ESPN The Magazine.