SEATTLE — Getting to the NCAA Tournament has been no problem for Gonzaga University in recent years. The Bulldogs are making their 17th consecutive trip to the Big Dance, the nation’s fourth-longest streak.
But getting past the tournament’s first two rounds has been decidedly more difficult.
Since Mark Few became the head coach prior to the 1999-2000 season, Gonzaga has reached the tournament’s Sweet 16 only four times in 16 tries. The last time was in 2009, which means no member of this year’s squad has Sweet 16 experience, aside from Kentucky transfer Kyle Wiltjer.
In his years at Gonzaga, senior guard Gary Bell Jr. said, no one “has ever been past the first weekend. We’ve won a lot of (regular season) games, we’ve accomplished a lot, we’ve been No. 1, but now we just want to get past the first weekend.”
Playing this week at Seattle’s KeyArena, only a cross-state flight from their Spokane home, the Bulldogs will try to change their postseason fortunes beginning with tonight’s 6:50 p.m. game against North Dakota State. Gonzaga is the No. 2 seed in the South Region, with the Bison being the 15th seed.
“We get the chance to play in front of our home fans,” said senior guard Kevin Pangos. “Hopefully they get the chance to make the trip here. Wherever we were going to play we were going to be satisfied because we just want to show up and play. But it’s definitely nice to be in Seattle, for sure.”
Bell, a 2011 graduate of Kentridge High School — he is the only Gonzaga player from the Puget Sound area — said “it’s definitely nice to have my parents and my grandma come and watch me play. That’s pretty cool.
“But having Zag Nation out here, being close to Spokane, that’s the biggest thing we’re going to have. It’s going to be like a home game for us, and hopefully they’ll get it rocking and we can play well.”
Gonzaga, ranked seventh nationally in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll, takes an outstanding 32-2 record into tonight’s game. Only top-ranked Kentucky, 34-0, has more victories heading into the tournament.
Explosive offensively, Gonzaga has been overpowering much of this season. Twenty-four of the team’s 32 wins have been by double-digit margins, and the Bulldogs have won by 20 or more points nine times, 30 or more five times, 40 or more four times, and 50 or more twice.
“We’ve had a season for the ages,” acknowledged Few, who was an assistant coach in 1999, the only time Gonzaga has ever reached the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight.
A string of 17 straight tourney appearances “is something that we’re extremely proud of,” he added. “We’ve put a lot of effort in and it’s something that we feel really, really good about. This has been a culmination of just a great effort by our guys. Not just physical effort, but as far as putting the team together and sacrificing roles, shots, minutes and all those things.
“It’s just been an absolute joy to be able to work with this team and I’m just happy that we were able to earn our way back to the NCAA Tournament. Because that’s obviously the goal at the start of the year.”
Though Gonzaga is clearly a favorite against North Dakota State, Few was properly cautious during Thursday’s media session prior to the team’s brief KeyArena workout.
“If you win your conference and win your conference tournament (as the Bison did), you’re a tough, tough team,” Few pointed out. “You took everybody’s shot.”
Moreover, North Dakota State reached the NCAA Tournament a year ago and won its opener, defeating Oklahoma, and that “tells me they’re obviously not going to be wowed by any of this,” he said. “The kids know how to win and the coach knows how to win.”
As the favorite, Few went on, the key “is getting your guys to be the hunter and not the hunted. … You’ve got to come in and you’ve got to throw haymakers because everybody who is in this thing is good.”
But if Few is cautious, North Dakota State head coach David Richman is openly impressed. Gonzaga, he said, is “as complete (a team) as I’ve seen. … They’re just a fun team to watch, they really are. They don’t trick you. They just go out there and do what they do, and they do it well.
“If we lined up and played them a ton of times, yeah, they’d probably get us the majority of it. But we’re going to play for 40 minutes (tonight), one time, and our guys are excited about that. … It’s a fun time of year and anything can happen.”
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