NEW YORK– Gonzaga finally broke through the glass ceiling.
The Zags have averaged more than 23 wins since Mark Few was elevated to head coach in 1999, been to 18 straight NCAA tournaments, have been ranked No. 1 in both 2013 and 2017 and advanced to Sweet 16 seven times and the Eiite Eight three times.
But until last night, when they defeated Xavier, 83-59, in San Jose to advance to their first Final Four in school history, there were still skeptics out there who were reluctant to give the little Catholic school in Spokane the credit for what they accomplished, criticizing the Zags for beating up on teams in a weak West Coast Conference.
They conveniently avoided looking at Gonzaga’s non-league schedule this season when the Zags defeated Pac-12 champion Arizona in Los Angeles, defeated Florida and Tennessee, which both beat Kentucky in SEC play; and defeated Iowa State, which defeated Kansas at Allen Field House.
This is Mark Few’s best team ever. It has a pair of seven-footers and a huge front line, capable wing shooters and a junior point guard Nigel Williams-Goss, who is the best point guard to play for the Zags since John Stockton, back in 1984.
Williams-Goss, a transfer from Washington, had his best game to date in this tournament, scoring 23 points and orchestrating an efficient offense that shot 55 percent and made 12 of 24 three point shots during a convincing victory. Power forward Johnathan Williams, a 6-9 junior, finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds and mammoth 7-0, 300-pound fifth-year senior center Przemek Karnowski, a Polish import who is still recovering from back surgery a year ago, created open perimeter looks with his passing out of the post. “It all starts with Przemek. You have to make a decision, do you want to double him or do you want– because he’s going to find guys,” Few said. “He’s very comfortable. He’s like the Magic Johnson of 5 men in there as far as what he likes to do.
‘And he can throw it out. He can handle a double team.
The Zags used their enormous size and depth up front to anchor a defense that limited Xavier to 35 percent shooting.
Williams-Goss, Williams and Williams are the core of this 36-1 team. They are transfers who found their way to Gonzaga from Washington and Missouri along with guard Jordan Mathews from Cal, giving Few the key pieces he needed to turn a relative new team into a great one.
Few has built this non-BCS program into a national power through resourceful recruiting. He only had three returning players– Karnowski and guards Josh Perkins and Silas Melson– when practice started last fall.
“We’ve never started with this many new people, as far as meshing them together,” Few said. “And they’re as connected as any team we’ve had that’s played together for four years. We’ve had some classes that red shirted and stayed together for four years. These guys are every bit as connected as them.
“And hey they proved it. Everybody was asking me is this your best team in November. It’s not fair. It’s not fair in December. It’s not fair in January, you know. But they’re 36-1, going to the Final Four. Absolutely, I mean, it is.
“But that’s not taking anything from those other ones. It’s hard — it’s hard to get to here where we are And there were some other teams that were every bit as good and deserving and all that and just didn’t catch a break. So I feel for them, but I’m also– I know those guys on those teams are so happy for these guys. I’ve been getting their texts and calls these last couple weeks. Some of them– Kevin Pangos is playing in Luthuania, and he texted me late at night. That’s the best part of being a coach.”
Once Gonzaga got it rolling, Xavier, which expended so much energy in a 73-71 semi-final victory over Arizona, had no answers. “Hey, they were just locked in,” said Xavier guard and leading scorer Trevon Bluiett, who had just 10 points.”They were a disciplined type of team and we just didn’t execute well enough.”
You can quibble that Gonzaga had a relatively easy road to the Final Four, winning four games against teams with an average seed of 10 and that Xavier was an 11. But this team belongs in the promised land.
This was an emotional night for everyone connected with Gonzaga basketball.
With 55 seconds left in the game, Williams Goss went off by himself on the court to reflect.
“I had to thank /God first and foremost for leading me down this path,” he said. “I just thought about the journey that it took to get here from transferring to sitting out and having ankle surgery and just battling everything we went through this year.
“We believed from day one, when we all stepped foot on this campus, that we could go to Phoenix. We didn’t shy away from setting that goal. And we bought in. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we knew if we put in the work and we bought into the system and listened to Coach, what he had to say to us, that we could do it.”