Gonzaga Basketball: Takeaways from Round of 32 win over Kansas Jayhawks

9 In a Row

Nine Sweet 16’s in a row. I have mentioned this already that the Bulldogs are one of the only three teams in the history of the sport to do that. North Carolina accomplished the feat from 1985-1993 and they ended it with a National Championship in 1993. Duke then accomplished the feat from 1998-2006 and won a National Championship in 2001. Gonzaga has not won a title yet but that is going to come at some time and maybe it comes this year. Even without the Championship it should not take anything away from the accomplishment.

Think about this: 9 years is 2 full recruiting classes. That means that Gonzaga has seen two groups of freshman classes graduate and have had to rebuild to an extent and the streak still continues. The Bulldogs have had some guys leave early for the NBA and have lost players to the transfer portal just like every other team has. The fact that coach Few has been able to keep Gonzaga at the top for this long speaks volumes about how good they have been for so long.

Every year that the Bulldogs make the tournament I am going to keep penciling them into the Sweet 16 at this point. It doesn’t matter who they play at this point because Gonzaga is good enough to beat everyone they play. They have outplayed their seed line in 13 of the last 16 tournaments and would have outplayed and likely won the National Championship in the 2020 season that was canceled. Gonzaga has been the best team in the NCAA tournament over the last nine seasons whether you want to admit that or not.