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DAN BICKLEY: With one game left to win, Gonzaga has nothing left to prove. Complete coverage inside azcentral sports. Find photos, videos at sports.azcentral.com.
No more questions. No more critics. Gonzaga has one game left to win and nothing left to prove.
“I think the respect thing has to go out the window,” guard Nigel Williams-Goss said. “(We) have 37 wins in a college season. I mean, that’s just unbelievable.”
The Zags’ thrilling 77-73 victory over South Carolina in Saturday’s Final Four was not the mountaintop or the end of the road. But the validation is powerful. Their joy was palpable, prompting head coach Mark Few to do a hand-
stand when he entered the locker room.
Intuitively, they all knew they had scored an important victory for their program, their conference and the perception of West Coast basketball.
Gonzaga flirted with an unbeaten record in the regular season. The Zags are versatile and deep. They play with a high degree of intelligence. They were the best team in the country for most of the year, and yet no one trusted their pedigree.
Before the NCAA Tournament started, former Suns star Charles Barkley picked Gonzaga to win it all. His eyes told him that the Zags were a really good team without weaknesses, a team that doesn’t need a star player to be on his game every night. He ridiculed the onlookers who criticized Gonzaga’s strength of schedule.
“I hate when people talk about strength of schedule,” Barkley said. “Why is it my fault your team sucks?”
Gonzaga players heard it all, how they were the weakest of the No. 1 seeds, how they were the most nervous team in the tournament, how they would be susceptible to the pressures of March Madness, having blown out most of their opponents during the regular season. Put it all to bed. “I feel blessed to be part of something special,” Williams-Goss said. “The journey we’ve been on has just been unreal, and we just never stopped believing. And we’ve had the utmost confidence in ourselves all season long.
“And like I said before the game, I guess they were making comments that we were the most nervous team in the tournament. And, you know, we just heard everything this year. We’ve heard the conference (is weak), we’ve heard we haven’t played tight games, that we’re not tough. We’ve heard everything.”
This Gonzaga team is a tribute to the quality of its program. When the Bulldogs came together in September, they had a roster of newcomers, with players from all over the globe. Coach Few was so worried about chemistry that he took them on a camping trip to Idaho and couldn’t believe how badly they fared in basic survival skills. They struggled to light fires and pitch tents. Few couldn't believe what he was seeing and privately wondered if his team was too soft to succeed.
It’s turned out to be just the opposite. Gonzaga raced through South Carolina’s vaunted defense, an opponent with great toughness and athleticism. The Gamecocks had previously manhandled Duke into submission, shocking the Blue Devils with extreme physicality earlier in the tournament.
But that defense never bothered Gonzaga, even if it once floored the 7-foot-1, 300-pound Przemek Karnowski, who had to take respite in the locker room with an eye injury. And when South Carolina mounted a furious rally, overcoming a 14-point deficit to take the lead in the second half, the Zags never panicked.
Contrary to some skeptics, they had no issues operating within the confines of a close game, and that’s a tribute to their head coach.
Before the game, South Carolina coach Frank Martin marveled at Gonzaga’s poise, and how it never fluctuates emotionally on the court. He said it was a reflection of Few’s personality that you could cover the scoreboard during any Gonzaga game and never see a difference in the team’s body language or demeanor.
“It’s not 1997 anymore,” Martin said. “They were Cinderella and all that pretty stuff in ’97. They’ve been in this thing 20 consecutive years. They’re as high-major as a high-major can get.”
There was a great scene after the game was over. As South Carolina players left the floor, their fans gave them a standing ovation, grateful for their irrepressible head coach and a seventhseeded team that earned its first Final Four berth in school history. And Gonzaga fans obviously felt the same way about their beloved program.
The journey has been long and arduous. They have gone from low-major to mid-major to Cinderella, suffering plenty of heartbreaks along the way.
They should inspire Grand Canyon University, a mid-major that is following the Gonzaga blueprint. They should comfort Arizona’s Sean Miller, who can't seem to break through to the Final Four. He should take solace that it took Few 18 years to break through his glass ceiling, and the wait only makes the achievement that much better.
And now Gonzaga can finish the job and the journey with one more victory, completing the transformation from great story to great team.