Mar. 28—DETROIT — It's one of the only obstacles Gonzaga hasn't hurdled in 25 years on college basketball's national stage. The Bulldogs have played in 25 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, 14 Sweet 16s — only UCLA (1967-80) and North Carolina (1981-93) had longer streaks than Gonzaga's current nine-year run — six Elite Eights and two national championship games. Nine times they have run into No. 1 ...
Mar. 28—DETROIT — Gonzaga's experienced lots of growth since its last run-in with Zach Edey and Purdue four months ago at the Maui Invitational. Four inches and 38 pounds, to be exact. That's the height/weight discrepancy between freshman wing Dusty Stromer and junior forward Ben Gregg, the players who traded spots in Gonzaga's starting lineup in mid-January. The change Gonzaga made midway ...
Mar. 28—DETROIT — To put Zach Edey's past two seasons into perspective, consider the company he's keeping: Legends like Bill Walton, Ralph Sampson, Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Elvin Hayes, Oscar Robertson and Rick Barry. Edey, Purdue's 7-foot-4, 300-pound center, has been the most dominant player in college basketball the past two seasons, reinforced by the numbers and the eye test. ...
Stephon Castle had 16 points and 11 rebounds for top-seeded UConn and the defending NCAA champion advanced to the Elite Eight with another double-digit victory, beating San Diego State 82-52 on Thursday night in a rematch of last year’s title game. Cam Spencer scored 18 points and Tristen Newton added 17 points and seven rebounds for the Huskies (34-3), who will play the winner of the other East Region semifinal between No. 2 Iowa State and No. 3 Illinois for a spot in the Final Four in Glendale, Arizona. Backed by a TD Garden that was virtually a UConn home crowd — Boston is about 90 miles from its Storrs, Connecticut, campus — the Huskies made it a double-digit lead early in the second half, 20 with about seven minutes left and 30 in the final minutes, after the teams sent in their benches.