A Cinderella with something to prove

They are ranked fourth (but seeded third). They haven't lost since December (but they haven't really played anyone good since).

They just completed a perfect championship run through their conference, 16 games up, 16 games down (but they needed a blown layup by a guy on a 12-18 team to make it happen).

Sure, the best player on their team might be the best player on any team. But the critics keep saying, shouldn't the Gonzaga Bulldogs at least look as good as their 27-3 record?

All that criticism, all those questions, all those memories of past March disappointments are why the Zags, set to play Xavier on Thursday in Salt Lake City, have more to prove in this NCAA tournament than any other team.

One more early tourney departure and the Bulldogs will become whipping boys for fans of middling programs in major conferences who believe they're better.

"I think it is probably warranted in some cases," Bulldogs coach Mark Few says of the questions about his team. "And unwarranted in others."

It's been seven years since Gonzaga crashed the national college basketball party. First it was one of those joyous March Madness stories, the little school that could. But Gonzaga became the Cinderella who wouldn't leave the ball, getting bigger and better each and every season.

So big and so better that they no longer get a pass from expectations. Gonzaga has something to prove.

Since completing a dramatic three-year stretch (from 1999 to 2001) that included one Elite Eight and two Sweet Sixteens, the Bulldogs have not reached the tournament's second weekend.

The strange thing is that Gonzaga enjoyed its greatest success when the deck was stacked against it. Those first three seasons the Bulldogs twice were a No. 10 seed and once a No. 12.

But since 2001 the Bulldogs have become media darlings, gotten big-time TV games, built a plush new arena, routinely beat Pacific-10 schools for recruits, had All-Americans, NBA draft picks, sweet seeds and, this year, probably the nation's best player, Adam Morrison.

But they've been going out in March like a lamb.

In 2002 the Bulldogs were upset in the first round by Wyoming. In 2003 they came up short in the second round to powerful Arizona in a classic double-overtime thriller. The last two years they were upended in the second round as a second and third seed, respectively.

"It is really frustrating," Gonzaga center J.P. Batista says.

"I think people are drawing too much out of the final outcome," Few says. "Yes, we haven't gotten past the second round, but people were writing songs about the game against Arizona. We did not play very well against Nevada, but they played terrific.

"And [last year] everybody was raving about how good Texas Tech was, and we led them for 39 minutes and just didn't shoot free throws well. In two of those games we played pretty darn well; we just didn't win."

It may not be fair but legends, and reputations, are made in March, and they are based on winning, not just playing well.

Of course, the mere fact that Gonzaga is dealing with this is a testament to the job Few has done in Spokane, taking a solid foundation and turning it into an unlikely national program. A decade ago, the thought the Zags needed to reach at least the Sweet Sixteen would have been laughable.

For his part, Few has stopped worrying about critics. Where seeding once mattered to him, Few says he really didn't care what he got this time (he blames his team's apparent disappointment on the CBS selection show on an eight-second broadcast delay).

And as much as the talking heads are wondering whether a team that seemed to play to the level of its competition in the so-so West Coast Conference is legit (five nationally televised league games were decided by four or fewer points), Few hasn't heard much of it.

"I don't listen to the audio of our games," he says. "If I watched [some of] our games, I'd probably say the same thing. Marcie [Few's wife] gets fired up about it; I don't.

"It is probably warranted the way we played in some of those games. But I turn on the television this week and Ohio State struggles mightily with Penn State, Duke struggles with Wake Forest or Florida State, teams like that. I don't know how fair that is."

Gonzaga has won 27 games this season. Its three losses are to UConn by two, at Washington by four and at Memphis by eight.

The Bulldogs obviously are a really good team. But Thursday, here in March, here where it matters most, they need to prove they can be great. The reality is that high seeds and high praise fuel the highest of expectations.