GLENDALE, Ariz.– Gonzaga coach Mark Few initially recruited 7-0, 230-pound freshman Zach Collins out Bishop Gorman High in Vegas to be a starter on this special team. But after 7-0, 300 pound fifth year senior Przemek Karnowski– a three year starter from Poland with NBA potential– decided to come back as a medical red shirt last May, it appeared Collins would have to wait his turn as a backup.
Collins was too good to sit, though.
Oregon point guard Payton Pritchard may be the only freshman starter in the NCAA Final Four, but Collins is the closest thing to a one-and-done. His pro stock soared here last night when he scored 14 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked a career high seven shots as the Zags (37-1) held off South Carolina, 77-73, before a sellout crowd of 77,616 at the University of Phoenix Stadium here Saturday night to advance to Monday’s national championship game against North Carolina.
“Well, me and Zach have been roommates all year long,” junior All America point guard Nigel Williams-Goss said. “And he told me before the game, ‘Look, I wouldn’t want to be playing against me today.’ And Coach says all year we can’t just talk the talk, we gotta walk the walk.
“When he said that to me, I said, ‘All right, let’s do it.’ For him to come out with a double double with six blocks, he walked the walk. I couldn’t be more happy for him. He had been telling me all year, I gotta get a double double. So I guess it’s a pretty good time to have one in the national semi-finals. He was just huge.”
So was Williams-Goss, who finished with 23 points, 5 rebounds and six assists.
Collins rose to the occasion at just the right time. Midway through the first half, Karnowski was poked in the eye and had to leave the court to take treatment in the locker room. “I had blurry vision, little bit shadow. I couldn’t really open it,” he recalled.
Karnowski saw an eye doctor and one of the team trainers at halftime. “By the time we were going out from halftime, it was getting better and better,” he said.
Karnowski finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds in 25 minutes, playing long stretches of the game where both he and Collins were on the court together.
But the Zags likely don’t win the game without Collins coming off the bench to play a towering role after South Carolina (26-11) cut the heart out of a 14 point lead with a spectacular 16-0 run. The SEC Gamecocks (26-11) took a 67-65 lead on a pair of free throws from guard Rakymn Felder with 7:06 left in the game. But Collins stopped the bleeding on the next possession with a three point jumper from the top of the arc that rattled in to give the Zags back the lead at 68-67.
Then the Zags went on a surge themselves, increasing their lead to 72-67 with 4:48 to play after Karnowski scored on a dunk and then made a layup after Collins grabbed a clutch rebound following a jump shot by South Carolina forward Chris Silva.
“I knew I wasn’t making plays like I was the first two games in our last two games so I wanted to come out and just do everything I could to give us a chance to win,” Collins said. “We have a resilient team. I don’t know if we were worried but we were a little shocked when they made a run. We knew our coaches were calm. We’ve been in that position before so we were confident.”
In truth, with the exception of the BYU regular season loss and the 71-68 Sweet 16 victory over West Virginia, Gonzaga hadn’t been all that challenged during this special season. This was a relatively new team in terms of returning players. But it is also a team loaded with experience — with two fifth year seniors– Karnowski, guard Jordan Mathews, a transfer from Cal-Berkeley and two red shirt juniors, 6-9 power forward Johnathan Williams, a transfer from Missouri; and Williams-Goss, a 6-3 transfer from Washington.
The Zags have learned to live with expectations.
And with the skepticism that continually reared its ugly head in the media, even though the Zags won 28-0 at one point and were ranked No. 1 in the AP poll.
But they never flinched.
“People were making comments that we were the most nervous team in the tournament,” Williams-Goss said. “We just heard everything this year– we’ve heard about our conference, heard we haven’t played in tight games, that we’re not tough. And we had an easy path to the Final Four. We only played an 11th seed– Xavier– in the Elite Eight because they beat a higher seed (No. 2 Arizona). So we can’t control who we played. I mean these teams have all beaten some good teams. Xavier defeated Maryland, Florida State and Arizona. South Carolina (a seventh seed) defeated Duke and Baylor.
“No one is here by accident. All four teams are deserving. So I think the respect thing has to go out the window. You have 37 wins in a college season, that’s just unbelievable. And to be playing in the last game of the year, we have a chance to play for it all. And we’re here to win it.”
Gonzaga, who shot 57.6 percent, was the only team in the semis to shoot better than 39 in this elevated stage in this giant football stadium. where depth perception can always be an issue. But there were still uneasy moments near the end. The Zags were clinging to a 75-72 lead after Collins made one of two free throws with 1:35 to play, but South Carolina had one final possession with 16 seconds to play and a chance to force overtime with a three. But the Gamecocks never got off a shot. Josh Perkins fouled South Carolina’s best player Sindarius Thornwell with three seconds to play, sending him to the line for two free throws. Thornwell made the first, then tried to miss the second but the Zags’ 6-10 Killian Tillie grabbed the rebound, then made a pair of free throws to end the threat.
The loss was devastating for South Carolina coach Frank Martin, who broke down at the podium as he struggled to talk about his team’s courageous effort.
“It’s who we are,” he said.”That’s why I’ve been so positive and so proud of these kids the entire year. Whether it’s win or lose, we’re so resilient. They don’t give in to difficult moments and that’s the reason we’re on the platform tonight.
”People keep score when you play 35, 36, 37 times a year and sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. That score eventually goes away when you impact people by the masses the way these kids have. That makes you a winner as a human being and that’s what matters. When we get back home and they realize what they’ve done in our community, their hearts will open up with joy. The pain of losing will eventually go away.”