Gonzaga trailed for a grand total of 79 minutes this season

The Gonzaga Bulldogs are sitting pretty at 29-1 as they head into the West Coast Conference Tournament looking for an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament and a potential No. 1 seed.

The Zags may no longer be ranked the top team in the nation, but that doesn’t mean they still aren’t one of the best, if not the best. If you want a mark on how dominant the Zags have been this season, look no further than how much time they have spent trailing in games.

During the regular season, the following happened:

• Through the whole season, the Zags trailed for a mere (and approximate) 78:50 of their total 1,200 minutes.
• That means the Zags trailed for only 6.5 percent of the season.
• The Zags did a majority of that trailing during the WCC, spending approximately 45:48 of 720 total minutes behind.
• At one point, the Zags ran a streak of 266 minutes and 36 seconds of not trailing their opponents.

But sure, half of that came against those WCC teams, of which the overall quality is obviously the worst in the entire land. But lets remember here, that means that the Zags were rarely down 2-0, or even 1-0.

And it also applies to the non-conference schedule where Gonzaga downed Arizona, Iowa State, Florida and Akron. In fact, that game against Florida was one of the more interesting ones of the season, because it is one of the few times the Zags trailed for a majority of the game.

• Gonzaga has only trailed at halftime twice this season (against Florida 37-32, and against Pacific 34-29).
• The Zags have only been behind in the second half three times this season (Florida, Pacific, and Saturday night’s loss to BYU).
• The largest deficit Gonzaga has faced this season is 11 points against Florida with nearly 4:30 left in the first half. It has been the only time the Zags have trailed by double-digit points all season.
• Prior to Saturday night’s contest against BYU, the Zags hadn’t trailed by more than five points in any game since Dec. 31 against Pacific.

The level of domination shown by the Zags this season is nothing short of impressive. I have no idea how it measures up to other teams this season, but I have to think that trailing for just 6.5 percent of all minutes played is somewhere up there with the best in the entire nation.