Every road to the NCAA Tournament is a long and winding one.  Just look at Gonzaga’s path: 17 years of winning in every gym in America, climbing the peak of college basketball with a team that hails from Canada, Poland and Lithuania, transfers from Kentucky and Vanderbilt and Louisville – all so the Zags can take a 40-minute Alaska Airlines bus to their date with destiny in Seattle.

Or Eastern Washington – the beloved alma mater of my brother Ralph and me – which has spent 22 years in Division I basketball building to this, its best team ever, and a second run at the NCAA tournament. The Eagles’ terrific players come from far away as well: Germany, Ukraine, Serbia and the mysterious kingdom of Gonzaga Prep. (And there are so many Australians on the EWU team the locker room toilets flush in the opposite direction.)/Jess Walter, SR. More here.