Gonzaga Basketball: 3 keys for Round of 64 matchup with Georgia State

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Gonzaga isn’t going to need a ton of motivation to have a successful run in the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs and their fans know what is at stake, the only separating them from the rest of the College Basketball elite is the National Championship. The players on the team know it, the coaches know it, the haters know it, and most importantly their opponents know it.

Gonzaga has to be loose; they can not play tense and they need to play games to win. It has never been a problem for them to play loose but if the Panthers come out and start making shots and getting steals and making it hard for Gonzaga to get in rhythm then who knows what can happen.

The overall number one seed is one of the most talented and skilled teams in the country. They are the best team in the country heading into the tournament because of how they play off each other and how well they play together.

They do have individual pieces but none of those pieces are ever as strong as the whole. That defines and has defined Gonzaga basketball under Mark Few. Gonzaga is also one of the most confident teams in the country it is extremely rare for them to start doubting what they are doing, but the NCAA tournament is a different beast altogether.

All of the pressure for the Bulldogs to perform and make a run to the NCAA title is all on them, no one in the field has more expectations for Gonzaga. No other team in the field will say a run to the elite eight or the final four is a failure of a season. The Bulldogs have done all of that and they have done it more than any other team in the country over the last decade. The only thing that matters is the Title.

The Bulldogs can not look ahead or take a game off, they have to treat Georgia State as they would any other opponent on their schedule. Do not look at the seed line look at them as the opposition standing in the way of what we think is truly ours. If Gonzaga does that this entire tournament not just against a 16 seed they will have a great chance of meeting their lofty expectations, but if they squeak by Georgia State and the comments start floating around and the haters get loud, maybe some doubt will set in.

Take care of your own business in the quest for the title and block out everything else. When they are right and playing their best no one in the country can beat them. It all starts on Thursday afternoon.