Pressure builds for Zags to win national title
A pair of Final Four appearances and last year’s flirtation with perfection have washed the underdog label from Gonzaga’s basketball program.
There are positives and negatives stemming from the Bulldogs’ development from tournament lock to one of the annual favorites for the national championship.
On the plus side, the rise in reputation and respect has turned Gonzaga into a preferred destination for some of the top prospects in the country. Or, in the case of this year’s team, the nation’s top recruit, period: Chet Holmgren, a 7-foot center from Minneapolis, chose the Bulldogs from dozens of scholarship offers.
The same sort of national recognition comes at a cost, however. Playing your way into the select group of college basketball’s top programs – Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, Villanova – means being compared to those teams, too, and in that comparison coach Mark Few’s program comes up short.
Having reached this point, there is intense pressure around Gonzaga to not just make the tournament, advance to the second weekend, reach the Final Four or play for the championship; the Bulldogs have been there, done that.
With another stacked roster combining established veterans and highprofile newcomers, the time is now for Gonzaga to win a national championship or risk trading the underdog tag for a more damning description: underachiever.
The Bulldogs have reached every NCAA tournament this century but have taken things to a different level since 2015. In the past seven seasons, Gonzaga is 227-25 with four trips to the Elite Eight and two appearances in the championship game, with losses to North Carolina in 2017 and to Baylor this past April.
Fresh off a year cut short in response to the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020-21 team made a run at college basketball immortality as the first since Indiana in 1976 to complete an unbeaten season
but came up one game short.
Long the benchmark for mid-major excellence, Gonzaga’s track record under Few is remarkable by almost any standard – in wins, tournament appearances, deep tournament runs and NBA draft success, the program has checked every box but one.
The lack of a national championship looms over the program as the Bulldogs head into another season where anything less could be considered a disappointment.
It’s not the only cloud hanging over Gonzaga. Another is Few’s DUI arrest over Labor Day weekend, a rare misstep for a coach who has largely avoided the spotlight and scrutiny that comes with running one of the top programs in the sport. The university suspended Few for two exhibition games and the season opener against Dixie State.
Few’s arrest and subsequent suspension have become the dominant storyline of the offseason, overshadowing the program’s efforts to reload after losing several key starters and projected contributors to the draft or via the transfer portal.
Guard Jalen Suggs was taken fifth overall by the Orlando Magic after a phenomenal freshman season highlighted by his 30-foot buzzer beater against UCLA that sent the Bulldogs to the championship game. All-america forward and West Coast Conference Player of the Year Corey Kispert was drafted 15th overall by the Washington Wizards.
Gonzaga also lost guard Joel Ayayi, who went undrafted after earning first-team all-conference honors, and a pair of complementary pieces to transfer: guard Aaron Cook left for Georgia and promising young center Oumar Ballo went to Arizona, joining longtime Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd, the Wildcats’ new head coach.
There is enough returning and incoming talent to warrant placing Gonzaga atop the preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.
Senior forward Drew Timme will be the centerpiece of the offense and an early favorite for the Wooden Award as college basketball’s most outstanding player.