The Gonzaga Bulldogs are no strangers to the national college basketball stage. From their days of pulling an upset over Florida with Casey Calvary’s buzzer beater in 1999, to Adam Morrison’s tears on the court after his Zags bowed out to Arizona in 2003, to Kelly Olynyk and the Bulldogs’ #1 seed in 2013, the Bulldogs have taken a place in the collective minds of basketball fans.
With their national exposure, Gonzaga Basketball became synonymous with bracket busting and Cinderella every March. However, the most popular team in the state of Washington also associated with weak scheduling and early exits in March.
Given that the Bulldogs have failed to advance beyond the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament since 2009, fans are left to wonder. Is this year’s version of the Zags finally the real deal, or is it simply another batch of fool’s gold?
Looking back at past Gonzaga teams with high expectations, we find that none of them lived up to the billing. Indeed, from 1999-2001, the Zags made three straight appearances in the Sweet 16 - all of them with a #10 seed or lower. It was a crime, Bulldogs fans cried, that their beloved Zags kept getting low seeds in March.
However, upon receiving higher placings (the Zags have been at least a #9 seed for 11 of the last 13 tournaments) Gonzaga has survived the first weekend of March Madness only twice. While the Bulldogs have a gaudy first game record of 10-2 since 2003, they fare much worse in game number 2, turning in only two wins in ten chances including five straight losses.
The common denominator, Zags detractors will say, is a soft conference schedule that does very little to prepare them for the fierce competition they face come March. To wit, while Kentucky, Kansas, and UConn were sharpening their NCAA Tournament teeth against SEC, Big 12, and Big East competition, Gonzaga was busy blowing out the likes of San Diego and and Santa Clara.
This season, Gonzaga is once again near the top of the college basketball heap - the 22-1 Zags are currently ranked #2 in the country behind unbeaten Kentucky - with a team that seems built for postseason success. And that is perhaps the most important difference between Bulldogs teams of yore versus this year’s crew.
So, with that, here are four reasons that Gonzaga is better suited to make a deeper tournament run than they have in recent years:
#1) Gonzaga has size:
Starting with 7-1 center Przemek Karnowski, the Bulldogs have a rotation that includes three players who are 6-10 or taller. Karnowski, a 288-pound behemoth from Poland, anchors a front line that also boasts 6-10 Kyle Wiltjer and 6-10 Domantas Sabonis, a freshman who happens to be the son of Olympic and NBA legend Arvydas Sabonis.
Each of the trio of basketball towers offers a different look for opposing defenses. Wiltjer leads the Bulldogs in scoring (nearly 16 points per game) with his inside-outside repertoire. A 43% three-point shooter, Wiltjer, a transfer from Kentucky, also has polished mid-range and post up abilities that make him difficult to guard in the half court.
Karnowski, meanwhile, is a traditional back to the basket player who has supreme footwork and touch around the basket. To make matters worse for opposing post men, Karnowski is left-handed which adds an added dimension of confusion to whoever tries to defend him down low. He averages 11 points and 6 rebounds per game and is their go-to scorer in late game situations.
Finally, the Bulldogs can rely on Sabonis, a freshman from Lithuania, to supply them with a variety of post up moves, basket cuts, and sharp ball moving skills - much like his father did for the Portland Trailblazers a few decades ago. Sabonis is still learning the college game, but his numbers (10 ppg on 72% shooting to go with 7 boards per outing) make him a match-up nightmare.
The three big men provide a variety of scoring options that has helped Gonzaga control the interior in nearly every game they have played. The Zags run a pro style-offense that takes full advantage of mismatches from teams that simply do not have that kind of size available.
#2) The Bulldogs have steady guard play:
Big men are rendered useless if teams do not have guard play sufficient enough to set an offense and utilize interior presence. With Senior Kevin Pangos running the show, Gonzaga has no such problems. Pangos, who hails from Ontario, Canada, is as steady a point guard as the college game has today.
Pangos leads the Zags in minutes played (over 30 per game) and in assists (almost 5 per outing) while scoring 12.2 ppg on 43% shooting (46% from behind the arc). He is a consummate do-it-all guard who knows how to run a team. Despite handling the ball on nearly every possession, Pangos only turns it over an average of 1.3 times per game. The veteran is both the fiery leader and calming presence that keeps the Bulldogs on track.
Pangos’ backcourt mates, Byron Wesley and Gary Bell, Jr., are just as reliable. The duo combines to score nearly 20 points a game from a variety of locations, and they each provide an athletic slashing option that further diversifies the Zags’ offensive attack.
All told, the guard combination gives the Zags a more than equal chance at making a deep March run.
#3) The Zags can score effectively from all points on the court:
The Bulldogs are one of the most efficient teams in the country when they have the ball. Currently, Gonzaga ranks among the nation’s leaders in field goal percentage (1st at 53%), scoring (10th at 81 ppg) and assists (8th at 17 apg). And they turn the ball over only 11 times per game.
Gonzaga’s mixture of inside and outside talent allows them to both shoot and pass over the top of zone defenses or punish man-to-man looks with their variety of scoring options. And the Zags gobble up an average of nearly 12 offensive rebounds per game in the off-chance they do miss a shot.
Such a combination will make it difficult for any team scheming to defend them in a tournament setting with very little time to prepare.
#4) Gonzaga plays lockdown team defense:
Defense is not necessarily the word that comes to mind when one thinks of Gonzaga basketball. However, this year’s team is most primed for a long March because it can put the clamps on opposing offenses.
First of all, most teams find themselves trailing early and often to the Zags and have to try to increase tempo or take quicker shots to compensate. The Bulldogs are so long across the baseline that only long jumpers or contested mid-range shots are available, even if the game is close.
Gonzaga does not ballhawk on defense, nor does it block shots with great effectiveness. They just rely on length and positioning. The Zags are also 30th in the country in rebounding with close to 40 per game, 28 of them coming on the defensive end. Simply stated, if a shot does not go in, Gonzaga has a high likelihood of grabbing it on either end.
Championship basketball teams typically have four common denominators: Post presence; guard play; scoring variety; and effective defense. Gonzaga has them all.
The knock on them will be weak scheduling (a 20-point drubbing of Memphis doesn’t cut it, Zags) and complacency from coasting through West Coast Conference play. While all of that might contribute to an early exit come March, it appears from the outside that these Zags are much better built to withstand the spring storm.