They have done it, they have proved almost everyone wrong. The Gonzaga Bulldogs, or Zags to the Spokane faithful, have emerged as a team with true championship potential.
Sixteen years ago, the Zags were the ultimate Cinderella. With a new coach in Mark Few, Gonzaga made the tournament as a 10-seed and eventually advanced to the Sweet 16 with unexpected wins over 7-seed Louisville and 2-seed St. John’s.
Even though Gonzaga’s basketball program has improved at an unprecedented level, many still consider the team as an underdog. Yes, they are a top-seeded, one-loss team with Wooden Award finalist Nigel Williams-Goss at point, but there has always been something impeding in the success of the program.
Last time the Bulldogs were a top-seed in 2013, they failed to cover the 3-point line against Wichita State, and the Shockers made their way to the Final Four.
Two years later, the Zags would finally get back to the Elite Eight, only to be overpowered by Duke, the eventual champions. It’s easy to see why fans of consistently elite college programs may second-guess the likes of Gonzaga.
One of the great parts of college basketball are the small teams, schools with Football College Subdivision (FCS) or division two football programs that rely heavily on basketball for national attention. Teams like Creighton, Xavier and Virginia Commonwealth are constantly competing for spots in the tournament. Meanwhile, North Carolina, Kentucky and Duke are expected to make a run nearly every year, even if they’re seeded over five.
We have seen championships like this before, most recently last year, with Villanova’s buzzer-beating win over University of North Carolina (UNC). Although two elite, major-conference schools usually face-off in the final, the tides seem to be turning a bit. If Villanova’s win last year and Gonzaga’s stellar performance this season are any indications, the national championship may continue to feature an underdog team versus a top tier team. I would absolutely root for a school with under 10,000 students against the likes of UNC each year.
This year’s best of the “small schools” is Gonzaga, and this program is better than ever. If the Bulldogs were going to choke in the tournament, it would have happened in the Elite Eight or earlier. Right when the Bulldogs punched their ticket to Phoenix for the Final Four, analysts, players, coaches and fans realized that this team may have signaled the end of Gonzaga as a Cinderella and expected choke-artist, and the beginning of Gonzaga as an actual championship contender.
Look at this season’s champion, the Tarheels and runner-up Bulldogs, and admit that almost no one could ever have predicted this championship or the outcomes of the many contests leading up to it.
Granted, two one-seeds met in the championship. However, this was only the fifth time since 2000 that two top-ranked teams reached the title game.
Those doubting Gonzaga’s ability claimed the Bulldogs faced one of the weakest regular season schedules and that their path through the playoffs lacked any high-caliber opponents.
This was the tournament of the underdogs. The top three teams in the total championship wins, UCLA, UNC and Kentucky, were all in the South region, and Kansas, Louisville and Michigan were the headliners of the Midwest.
UNC also made another appearance in the championship, it’s a team that has proved itself as the top name in college basketball — Michael Jordan, for example.
The East and West regions did not turn out at all as many predicted. After cruising through the Pac-12 tournament, Arizona looked poised to take its second championship.
According to most analysts, the only teams standing in the way were the top two seeds in the East — Villanova and Duke. There was supposed to be a classic match-up between these two teams in the Elite Eight. Instead, we got two great upsets in Wisconsin over Villanova and South Carolina over Duke in the round of 32.
In the West, Xavier mirrored what South Carolina was doing by outperforming the elite competition, Florida State and Arizona. The left-side of the Elite Eight would not be anywhere near what most of the statisticians have hypothesized.
Almost no one expected the second and fourth ranked Southeastern Conference teams, Florida and South Carolina to play up to the level of SEC foe Kentucky and face off in the Elite Eight. Perhaps even fewer expected the 11-seeded Xavier Musketeers to face yet another overlooked team, the Zags.
Despite the top-ranking and 32-1 regular season record, the Zags were expected by many to lose to either Notre Dame or West Virginia in the Sweet 16. After a pretty lackluster shooting performance in the first round against South Dakota State and a near comeback by 8-seed Northwestern in the round of 32, many expected Gonzaga to flop in the postseason as they usually do.
But, in a movie-like way, Gonzaga didn’t allow the expectations, or lack thereof, to impose on the team’s determination
Instead, Gonzaga has earned the right to be recognized nationwide as one of the best and the absolute champion of Northwest basketball.
Colton Clark can be reached @arg-sports.uidaho.edu or on Twitter @coltonclark95