:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68943891/usa_today_15699493.0.jpg)
The Gonzaga Bulldogs move on to the NCAA Tournament as the 16th team to ever enter the competition undefeated. What an achievement.
It has been so fun to watch this team play over the course of the season, and they have handled the rigors of playing through the pandemic with a level of maturity and grace well beyond their years. Of course, we are all hoping they win these next 6 games which would mark them as one of the greatest college basketball teams of all time. Even if they don’t, however, they have given fans an incredibly bright spot during a very difficult year for many. They’ve earned our appreciation forever.
Also, I’m still recovering from the women’s thrilling victory at the buzzer and I’m not even suffering from food poisoning. That was an unbelievably resilient performance. The ladies showed us what toughness looks like.
On to the content:
- USA TODAY posted an interesting article examining why Aloysius Gonzaga is the perfect namesake saint of this Gonzaga team for this season. It’s a fascinating read on things I’d never connected. Things are really coming together this year for the Zags.
- After the game on Tuesday night, Mark Few acknowledged the achievement of going undefeated for the first time with his team. It’s an accomplishment they should enjoy for the moment, before buckling down and focusing on the remaining task at hand.
- Andrew Nembhard has flown under the radar a bit this season due to the star power on his team, but the guard has fit in perfectly with his second basketball home after transferring from Florida and has played a crucial part in maintaining Gonzaga’s excellence throughout the year.
- Dana O’Neil is still backing Gonzaga and Baylor to beat the field and meet in the championship game, but her counterpart in Brian Hamilton thinks Illinois and Michigan might have the goods to end the Big 10’s national championship drought.
- Gonzaga punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with Tuesday’s win over BYU, but there are plenty of teams that will be sweating out results throughout the country as the bubble gets squeezed. Here’s the primer on who to watch for this week.
- NCAA.com runs through 68 predictions for the tournament, highlighted by the matchup that we lost in December between Gonzaga and Baylor.
- BRACKETOLOGY: Lunardi has the Zags locking up the top overall seed after rallying past BYU, joined by Ohio St. (2), Kansas (3), Purdue (4), and Florida State (5) as the other top seeds in this region—that’s an intriguing group. Brian Bennett has Ohio St. (2), West Virginia (3), Purdue (4), and Texas Tech (5) with a possible PNW battle for GU in the second round with Oregon (8). Chris Dobbertean has the same 2 and 3 in Gonzaga’s region as Bennett, with Virginia as the 4 and Creighton as the 5. Jerry Palm has Iowa (2), Texas (3), Purdue (4), and Virginia (5) in Gonzaga’s region with a tasty second round opponent in either Oklahoma or Wisconsin.