Gonzaga delivers strong closing argument in its bid for a No. 1 seed
There was more at stake for Gonzaga than just the WCC tournament title on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
It was the Zags’ final chance before Selection Sunday to bolster their case for the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament’s West Region.
A 74-56 throttling of 19th-ranked Saint Mary’s served as a solid closing argument. Gonzaga roared to a 21-point halftime lead, took its foot off the gas pedal a bit too soon and then stomped the accelerator once more to pull away from the rival Gaels for good.
Gonzaga will enter the NCAA tournament with a 32-1 record that includes six RPI top 50 wins — Arizona, Florida and Iowa State during the non-conference season and Saint Mary’s three times in league play. The lone blemish is a stunning home loss to BYU in the Zags’ regular season finale that destroyed their hopes of finishing with a perfect record.
That résumé ought to be enough to hold off fellow No. 1 seed contenders Oregon, Arizona and UCLA no matter which one captures this week’s Pac-12 tournament and emerges as the league’s strongest team. All three Pac-12 powers have similar profiles at the moment, with the Ducks and Wildcats sharing the conference title and third-place UCLA boasting the most significant non-league wins.
Based on its Pac-12 tournament draw, Oregon (27-4) cannot finish with more than five RPI top 50 wins. It’s difficult to imagine the Ducks knocking Gonzaga off the top seed line with two more losses and one fewer top 50 win.
Arizona could match Gonzaga’s six top 50 wins if it captures the Pac-12 tournament, but the Wildcats (27-4) would still have three more losses. It also hurts Arizona’s argument that one of their losses came at the hands of the Zags on a neutral floor, albeit without suspended Allonzo Trier and injured Parker Jackson Cartwright.
The biggest threat to Gonzaga might be UCLA (28-3), which has a chance to get to eight top 50 wins if it goes through USC, Arizona and Oregon to claim the Pac-12 tournament title. In that scenario, the Bruins would have two more top 50 wins than Gonzaga and would have avenged all three of their losses twice, but their 251st-ranked non-conference strength of schedule is an anchor weighing them down. The committee already made that clear when it slotted UCLA 15th in its in-season rankings last month.
Aside from the three Pac-12 powers, the only other realistic threats to jump up to the No. 1 seed line are Louisville (24-7) and Baylor (25-6), both of whom have a bushel of marquee victories but did not win their respective leagues. The Cardinals could have to go through Duke and North Carolina just to reach the ACC title game. The Bears would probably have to survive Kansas State and West Virginia to earn a potential third crack at Kansas.
Whether Gonzaga lands on the No. 1 or No. 2 line won’t affect its March goals. The Zags want to get to the program’s first Final Four after so many past near misses.
Nothing is guaranteed in a single-elimination tournament when one poor shooting night can end a season early, but this year’s Gonzaga team is better equipped to make a Final Four push than any previous squad.
No other Zags team was anywhere near as good defensively as this one is. Gonzaga is No. 3 in the nation in defensive efficiency, a product of the rim protection of Przemek Karnowski and Zach Collins and a more-athletic-than-usual perimeter corps that contests out to the 3-point arc without allowing opposing guards to blow past.
This edition of the Zags is also maybe the most balanced and complete yet.
Point guard Nigel Williams-Goss has emerged as a go-to threat and Karnowski is the interior focal point, but four other players average between 8 and 11 points per game. There’s enough talent in Gonzaga’s starting five that its best NBA prospect, Collins, comes off the bench, as does athletic wing Silas Melson and skilled forward Killian Tillie.
That this season could be Gonzaga’s finest is remarkable considering the Zags lost four starters from last year’s 28-win team including lottery pick Domantas Sabonis, 20-point-a-game scorer Kyle Wiltjer and WCC defensive player of the year Eric McClellan. With nine newcomers including three transfers projected to start from the outset, Few feared it might take his team awhile to jell, but from the outset the Zags showed tremendous chemistry, communication and cohesiveness.
All that was on display Tuesday night as the Zags brushed aside Saint Mary’s (28-3) for the third time this season. Williams-Goss scored 22 points, Karnowski added 15 and Gonzaga held the Gaels to 36.7 percent shooting, defending with the aggressiveness and urgency that had been lacking since the BYU loss.
Winning the WCC tournament title is a significant accomplishment for Gonzaga, but in reality that’s not what mattered most Tuesday night.
The Zags took another step toward a No. 1 seed in the West and the most favorable possible path toward that elusive Final Four.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
