Gonzaga still on track for perfect season
Gonzaga’s countdown to perfection has ticked to two.
The Bulldogs are back in the Final Four, two wins from becoming the first undefeated team since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.
And, after all those upsets, the March Madness apex in the Hoosier State will be a high-seeded affair.
Gonzaga is a No. 1 seed. So is Baylor. Houston, a 2. UCLA is an 11, but it’s also the all-time leader in national championships.
There also will be a trip down Southwest Conference memory lane.
But the Zags will be the team to beat.
Gonzaga (30-0) has been an offensive juggernaut rarely seen in college basketball. Fast moving and free flowing, the ultraefficient Zags have steamrolled everyone in their way, winning a Division I-record 27 straight games by double digits.
An 85-56 dismantling of Southern California in the Elite Eight stretched their win streak to 34 games over two seasons and put them back in the Final Four for the second time in the past four NCAA Tournaments. Gonzaga came up short in a loss to North Carolina in the 2017 national title game, but has its sights set on finishing it off this time — and grabbing a piece of history.
UCLA (22-9) has grinded out five wins in the NCAA tourney, including No. 2 seed Alabama and a 51-49 takedown of top-seeded Michigan in the Elite Eight. The Bruins are in the Final Four for the first time since 2008 and play the kind of game that might be able to slow the Gonzaga machine.
“Obviously, I knew the expectations. It’s pretty clear at UCLA,” Mick Cronin said. “I understood it and I wanted it.”
The Texas half of the draw will have a Southwest feel.
Baylor and Houston were both members of the Southwest Conference, which splintered in 1996. The Bears were there when the league started, circa 1914. The Cougars made the move from independent to SWC status in 1975.
The Bears (26-2) were unstoppable this season before a COVID-19 pause slowed their roll, but they’ve been back to their dominating ways in March.
The Cougars had lost the luster from the Phi Slama Jama days, reaching the NCAA Tournament once in 22 years before Kelvin Sampson was hired in 2014.
Sampson gradually built Houston back up, taking it to the NCAA Tournament’s second round in 2018, the Sweet 16 the next year. The fleet-footed Cougars (28-3) were dominating this season and grinded down their first four NCAA Tournament opponents to reach their first Final Four since losing in the 1984 national championship game.
ELSEWHERE
Late Tuesday —
UCLA 51, Michigan 49: Johnny Juzang poured in 28 points while playing most of the second half on a hurt ankle, and the
Bruins became the fifth No. 11 seed ever to reach the Final Four. After dictating the pace all game, eschewing the slick style of Michigan in favor of a rock fight, it only seemed fitting that the underdog Bruins (22-9)
— with two overtime wins in the tournament already — would take it to the buzzer in the East Region Elite Eight game. They were clinging to a 50-49 lead when top-seeded Michigan (23-5) called a timeout with 19 seconds to go. Juwan Howard set up an open three-point look for cold-shooting Franz Wagner, who missed most of everything, and Eli Brooks missed a put-back.
UConn: Sophomore James Bouknight has announced his intention to enter the NBA draft. The 6-foot-5 guard averaged 18.7 points per game this season, but played in just 15 contests, missing eight games after undergoing elbow surgery in early January.
WOMEN
UConn’s star guard Paige Bueckers became the first freshman ever to win The Associated Press women’s basketball player of the year award.
Bueckers helped lead the Huskies to their 13th consecutive Final Four with 28 points in the regional final win over Baylor on Monday night, just the latest star turn for the phenomenol Minnesota native.
Late Tuesday — Stanford 78, Louisville
63: Lexie Hull scored 21 points and the Cardinal (29-2) reached the Final Four by rallying to beat the No. 2-seed Cardinals
(26-4) at San Antonio.
Maryland: Brenda Frese was honored as The Associated Press women’s basketball coach of the year for the second time in her career. Frese received eight votes from the 30member national media panel that votes on the weekly AP Top 25.