Can No. 1 Gonzaga evade underachiever label?
A pair of Final Four appearances and last year’s flirtation with perfection have washed the underdog label from Gonzaga’s basketball program.
There are positives and negatives stemming from the Bulldogs’ development from tournament lock to one of the annual favorites for the national championship.
On the plus side, the rise in reputation and respect has turned Gonzaga into a preferred destination for some of the top prospects in the country. Or, in the case of this year’s team, the nation’s top recruit, period: Chet Holmgren, a 7-foot center from Minneapolis, chose the Bulldogs from dozens of scholarship offers.
The same sort of national recognition comes at a cost, however. Playing your way into the select group of college basketball’s top programs – Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, Villanova – means being compared to those teams, too, and in that comparison coach Mark Few’s program comes up short.
Having reached this point, there is intense pressure around Gonzaga to not just make the tournament, advance to the second weekend, reach the Final Four or play for the championship; the Bulldogs have been there, done that.
With another stacked roster combining established veterans and high-profile newcomers, the time is now for Gonzaga to win a national championship or risk trading the underdog tag for a more damning description: underachiever.
The Bulldogs - ranked No. 1 for the first time in the Ferris Mowers Men's Basketball Coaches Poll - have reached every NCAA tournament this century but have taken things to a different level since 2015. In the past seven seasons, Gonzaga is 227-25 with four trips to the Elite Eight and two appearances in the championship game, with losses to North Carolina in 2017 and to Baylor this past April.
Fresh off a year cut short in response to the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020-21 team made a run at college basketball immortality as the first since Indiana in 1976 to complete an unbeaten season but came up one game short.
Long the benchmark for mid-major excellence, Gonzaga’s track record under Few is remarkable by almost any standard – in wins, tournament appearances, deep tournament runs and NBA draft success, the program has checked every box but one.
The lack of a national championship looms over the program as the Bulldogs head into another season where anything less could be considered a disappointment.
It’s not the only cloud hanging over Gonzaga. Another is Few’s DUI arrest over Labor Day weekend, a rare misstep for a coach who has largely avoided the spotlight and scrutiny that comes with running one of the top programs in the sport. The university suspended Few for two exhibition games and the season opener against Dixie State.
Few’s arrest and subsequent suspension have become the dominant story line of the offseason, overshadowing the program’s efforts to reload after losing several key starters and projected contributors to the draft or via the transfer portal.
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Guard Jalen Suggs was taken fifth overall by the Orlando Magic after a phenomenal freshman season highlighted by his 30-foot buzzer-beater against UCLA that sent the Bulldogs to the championship game. All-American forward and West Coast Conference Player of the Year Corey Kispert was drafted 15th overall by the Washington Wizards.
Gonzaga also lost guard Joel Ayayi, who went undrafted after earning first-team all-conference honors, and a pair of complementary pieces to transfer: guard Aaron Cook left for Georgia and promising young center Oumar Ballo went to Arizona, joining longtime Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd, the Wildcats’ new head coach.
Senior forward Drew Timme will be the centerpiece of the offense and an early favorite for the Wooden Award as college basketball’s most outstanding player.
Lost in the shuffle behind Suggs and Kispert last season, junior point guard Andrew Nembhard is expected to make a permanent move into the starting lineup and rank among the nation’s best at his position.
The Bulldogs also benefited from the transfer portal by signing former Iowa State guard Rasir Bolton, a box-score-stuffing veteran who will step right into a starting role after averaging 15.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game during the 2020-21 season.
Content for most of Few’s tenure with signing developmental or international prospects overlooked by most of college basketball’s top programs, Gonzaga now swings and connects on the most coveted prospects in the country. The incoming class also includes two immediate-impact guards in Hunter Sallis and Nolan Hickman.
But the centerpiece of the signing class is Holmgren, a unicorn prospect with the length to disrupt at the rim and the offensive touch from the perimeter to stretch opposing defenses.
With Timme responsible for the heavy lifting in the frontcourt, Holmgren has the opportunity to ease into a larger role before the start of the postseason.
That’s when Gonzaga’s season will come into focus – in tournament games played in March and April that will determine whether this season will be different than the last. The pieces are in place to break through and win the national championship.
Follow colleges reporter Paul Myerberg on Twitter @PaulMyerberg
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College basketball: Can No. 1 Gonzaga evade its underachiever label?
