Well, the Zags have done it! 20 straight NCAA Tournament appearances is an incredible achievement, regardless of the conference. And a hearty congratulations to the women’s basketball team which also clinched another NCAA Tournament berth by knocking off the San Diego Toreros! On to the week’s tidbits:
- Jill Barta scored 32 points to lead the Gonzaga women to the WCC Final, and was named the Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
- Chris Murray of the Reno-Gazette Journal discusses the prospects of Gonzaga joining the MWC at length in his mailbag. Murray brings up a good point that while Gonzaga might just be leveraging the MWC talks into a bigger share of the pie from the WCC, you would think that its conversations with the MWC would have looked a lot sooner if its simply a negotiating ploy.
- And because we just can’t stop thinking about conference realignment, Mark Zeigler takes a deep dive into examining all the questions surrounding a possible Gonzaga move to the MWC. This one is definitely worth a read.
- Laura Stockton is a boss, and bosses get profiled by USA Today Sports.
- The Zags snuffed out BYU’s chances at the NCAA Tournament, and Mark Few called the big second half run that put the game away the best run he’s seen since he’s been the head coach.
- Ronny Turiaf, who was honored in the WCC Hall of Fame this week, is embarking on a nomadic life but still keeps Gonzaga close to his heart.
- Brian Bennett (The Athletic subscription required) writes that Gonzaga is locked in, and the rest of the country better watch out.
- Gary Parrish warns not to count out Gonzaga.
- Bracketology: Despite their dominant showing in the WCC Final, Stewart Mandel still has the Zags pegged for a 5-seed in the West region, with an inevitable second round matchup against Arizona looming. Chris Dobbertean of SB Nation still has Gonzaga on the 4-line, but in the East region. Joe Lunardi finally has Gonzaga back on the 4-line, but also in the East region, but with its opening weekend games in San Diego (though I wouldn’t say that’s great considering Gonzaga’s performances in SD this year).