PHILADELPHIA– Gonzaga has been a regular in the later stages of the NCAA tournament the last seven years, advancing to a pair of national championship games. two region finals, and three Sweet 16s.
But the Zags, who were the overall No. 1 seed the last two years, are still looking for that elusive first national title.
They perennial WCC champions fell short on their ultimate goal again Thursday when they were knocked out by fourth seed Arkansas, 74-68, in San Francisco, the same night that Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke team defeated Texas Tech to keep his dreams of one final title alive. The two teams will meet Saturday with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
“It’s always gosh, just so tough when it finally happens,” Gonzaga’s future Hall of Fame coach Mark Few said.
It’s hard to win six games in March, especially when you are sitting on the top of the AP poll most of the season and getting everyone’s best shot.
And who knows when the Zags will have this kind of NBA talent again.
The Hogs, who advanced to a third straight Elite Eight, were just the better team in this showdown, taking the game over down the stretch after Gonzaga’s 7-1 freshman unicorn Chet Holmgren, who finished with all of his 13 points after halftime and grabbed 14 rebounds in what was likely his final college game, was limited by early foul trouble in the first half, picked up a fourth personal with 8:36 and finally fouled out with 3:29 left after he was whistled for a fifth personal trying to stop Arkansas’ guard JD Notae, who relentlessly attacked the rim..
Notae launched 29 shots, making nine and scoring 21 points for the Hogs, who gave the SEC a measure of validation after contenders Kentucky and Tennessee made early exits, He also had six rebounds six assists three steals and two blocked shots.
“Yeah, I think we’ve being disrespected the whole year so it’s just another thing for us,’ sophomore forward Jaylin Williams said. “They have them an 86 percent chance to win. We saw that and everything they were saying. We felt like they were dancing before the game. That was disrespect to us. We came into the game
playing hard and had a chip on our shoulder.”
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman agreed. “I’ve like to thank all those people who picked against us,” he said. “We read everything. It was great bulletin board material.”
All American forward Drew Timme scored 25 points for the Zags but couldn’t lead his team to victory that way the way he did when he scored 21 of his team’s first 25 points in opening minutes of the second half of a second- round comeback victory against Memphis.
“It was a hell of a ride,” Timme said. “It didn’t end up the way we wanted but we came to play hard. It was their night.”
The Hogs (28-8) got to the rim at will when a rim protector like Holmgren was on the bench. But the difference in this game was the Arkansas defense, which made it difficult for the Zags (28-3) to score and took starting point guard Andrew Nembhard out of the game.
Nembhard, who scored 23 points and had 5 assists in 40 minutes against Memphis, played a full 40 minutes, but shot just 2 for 11, scored only seven points and had five turnovers against the Hogs. The Zags, who led the country in scoring with 87.8 points a game, did not help themselves, making just 5 of 21 threes. Gonzaga, which shot 52.7 percent from the field, made just 37.5 percent, “Their defense was just tough to get any rhythm against,” Few admitted.
“We wanted to be physical, plain and simple,” Musselman said. “We wanted them to feel bodies. Obviously, they played a really tough schedule early in the season, but it’s been a long time in conference play since they faced a team like us.”
