Zags to riches
Gonzaga has all the pieces to finally make Final 4 run
THE BEST team in the country doesn’t play in the ACC, the Pac-12 or the Big 12. It isn’t over-reliant on freshmen, and it has never reached a Final Four.
It is built on three impact transfers, the modern day version of Bryant “Big Country” Reeves, and despite its status as the lone undefeated team in the country, remains a question mark in some uninformed circles.
Meet Gonzaga, the nation’s most complete team.
Skeptical? Join the club. The NCAA men’s basketball committee gave the Zags the final No. 1 seed in Saturday’s tournament bracket preview. Coach Mark Few’s team responded by manhandling No. 20 Saint Mary’s, 74-64, dominating the Gaels in enemy territory to improve to 26-0. Twenty-three of those wins have come by double-digits.
The Zags are the lone team in the country with a top-five adjusted offensive efficiency rating and a top-five adjusted defensive efficiency rating. They are 4-0 against top-25 RPI teams, 7-0 against top-50 RPI teams and ranked No. 1 by the analytics website KenPom.com.
They are deep — seven players average between 15.7 and 8.2 points per game — and versatile, with difference-makers at almost every possession. Point guard Nigel Williams-Goss, a transfer from Washington, is one of the more unsung players in the country, averaging 15.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists. Center Przemek Karnowski, a 7-foot-1, 300-pound Polish import who missed most of last season after undergoing back surgery, looks like a trucker, but is polished, quick on his feet for his size, and a quality passer, reminding us of Reeves, the former big-bodied Oklahoma State star. Two more transfers — guard Jordan Mathews (California) and forward Johnathan Williams (Missouri) — would be stars elsewhere, but with the Zags, they are complementary pieces. Seven-foot cen- ter Zach Collins, one of the best freshmen nobody talks about, comes off the bench, averaging 10.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in just 17.2 minutes per game.
Remarkably, only one starter, guard Josh Perkins, returned from last year’s Sweet 16 group. It’s a relatively new team that is only getting better.
While you can f ind weaknesses in most of the nation’s top teams, Gonzaga doesn’t have an obvious Achilles’ heel. The Zags shoot 38 percent as a team from 3-point land, they have a wealth of bigs, plenty of guards, and are ninth in the country in scoring defense — a weakness in the past — limiting opponents to 61.7 points per game.
Gonzaga, of course, has never reached a Final Four, losing twice in the Elite Eight. The Bulldogs come from the mid-major West Coast Conference, so they are obviously not tested like the Dukes, Kansases and Oregons of the country. But they have defeated five power conference opponents, highlighted by a seven-point neutral site win over No. 9 Arizona and a five-point neutral site win over No. 17 Florida.
It was around this time last year I heard similar doubts about Villanova — the Wildcats never come through in March; the Big East can’t compare to the ACC and the Big Ten and the Pac-12. It wasn’t until April, when the Wildcats were the last team standing, stunning favored North Carolina in the national final on Kris Jenkins’ 3-pointer at the buzzer, that the narrative changed.
It can change again this year for Gonzaga.
Won to 100
All eyes in the college basketball world should be on Storrs, Conn., Monday night. That’s where Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies will go for unprecedented win No. 100 in a row, a remarkable achievement. The four-time defending national champions were supposed to take a step back this year, after gradu-
ating transcendent star Breanna Stewart — the No. 1 pick in last year’s WNBA draft. Only Auriemma’s teams rarely do anything but forge ahead, dominating everyone in their path.
A few phenomenal stats in this 99-game win streak: The Huskies have won 97 of these games by double-digits, and their average margin of victory is an eye-popping 43.7 points per game. Prior to UConn’s most recent loss, Nov. 17, 2014, to Stanford, it had won 46 games in a row. That’s 145 wins in 146 games.
That No. 1 UConn (24-0) is going for the landmark victory against one of the best teams in the country, sixth-ranked South Ca ro l i n a , only adds to the intrigue. Then again, it has defeated eight ranked teams this season, knocking off No. 2 Baylor, No. 3 Maryland and No. 7 Notre Dame.