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Gonzaga Bulldogs: This Year Will Not Be Any Different

By Daniel Tran

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The Gonzaga Bulldogs have always been a darling in the AP Poll, but have never translated that into NCAA Tournament success. That trend will continue.

Every year, it seems the Gonzaga Bulldogs have captured the hearts and imagination of polls across the country, resulting in a high ranking and an opportunity to have an easier road through the NCAA Tournament. However, year after year, they break their promise of a deep run through the tournament, destroying many brackets in the process.

Since bursting onto the national scene in 1999 when they reached the Elite Eight behind the efforts of household names like Matt Santangelo and Richie Frahm, The Gonzaga Bulldogs have never advanced past the Sweet Sixteen. Six times in the last 16 years they were ranked in the top 10 of the AP Poll at the end of the season, and four of those times they did not advance past the third round.

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While these accomplishments are huge for a team from a non-major conference, the expectation that comes with these high rankings are elevated, and getting knocked out before the Sweet Sixteen that many times is unacceptable. Many are hoping this year will be different for the Bulldogs, who currently rank seventh in the nation going into their conference tournament, but based on the many times they were highly ranked before, fans should not expect anything different from them this year.

Gonzaga fans will point to the amount of depth that the Bulldogs have this year as a sign their ready for big things, and it is true that their team is very talented. Przemek Karnowski, Kevin Pangos, Byron Wesley, and Kyle Wiltjer are all averaging double figures in scoring. The Bulldogs other top 10 teams also had similar depth, having at least three players scoring in double figures.

Even the great number one seeded Gonzaga team in 2013, who fielded Elias Harris, Kelly Olynyk, and a younger Kevin Pangos, could not gel their talent at the right time, losing to No. 9 Wichita State in the second round of the tournament. They do not lack talent, the Bulldogs just lack significant tests to prepare from the gauntlet of talented teams they will face outside the West Coast Conference bubble.

Gonzaga has tried and pleaded to get better non-conference games with nationally recognized opponents. In recent years, they have been successful at getting games against ranked opponents like Memphis, Butler, Illinois, and most recently Arizona. However, those games happen at most three times a year for the Bulldogs while the rest of their games are played against the relatively Charmin© soft WCC.

In 14 of the previous 15 years that Mark Few has coached Gonzaga, the Bulldogs have had a share of the WCC Title, whether it was through the tournament or regular season play. However, by the end of the regular season, none of the teams that Gonzaga faced during WCC were ranked in the AP Poll. The Bulldogs are on pace to be in the same situation this year, with no other WCC teams in the AP Poll.

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    • But should Gonzaga be blamed for not getting a tougher non-conference schedule: absolutely not. They have made it clear they want to faceoff against ranked opponents outside of their conference, but no other ranked teams want to risk running into them early in the season and getting into a dogfight before they’ve worked out the kinks.

    As a result, Gonzaga’s convincing wins against lesser opponents from the major conferences shows they are better than most teams, which warrants a high ranking in the AP Poll. Maybe a little too high at times, but what can the poll takers do when they have a limited sample size to work with when observing Gonzaga?

    Head coach Mark Few has done a tremendous job coaching this team for the past 16 years and getting the team to the NCAA Tournament consistently and advancing more often then not. Unfortunately, this team is doomed to the same fate as all the other highly ranked Gonzaga teams: they will be get a high seed in the NCAA tournament, win a few games, and falter when they reach the later rounds. Without steadily facing legitimate tournament teams, Gonzaga’s Final Four hopes will fall short once again.

    Next: Busting Bracketology March 4: New No. 1 Seed

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