Jim Meehan

Gonzaga coach Mark Few relayed numerous stories to his players and staff about his experiences as an assistant with USA Basketball last summer at the FIBA World Cup.Few should have another fresh batch of stories to tell next season’s Zags after spending time with the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics this summer.

Gonzaga has been in the top 10 in a bunch of way-too-early college basketball preseason polls so it makes sense the Bulldogs would be projected as a high seed. GU checked in as a two seed in the West Region in ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s first bracket projection,

When he didn’t make the varsity team at Kentwood High School in his junior year, Michael Ajayi sat in his room, tears flowing, wondering if he had a future in basketball. It was time for the mother of all pep talks.

Gonzaga assistant coach R-Jay Barsh and South Carolina sophomore forward Chloe Kitts go back so far that Barsh isn’t exactly sure how long. “She was a little kid,” Barsh said. “Nearly her entire life.” Barsh has helped train Kitts on the basketball court and he’s been a mentor away from the game.

Pride and disappointment, the latter enters every locker room except one after the 67 games of an NCAA Tournament, were on display Friday as Gonzaga players processed a season-ending 80-68 loss to Purdue.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few and player after player described the predicament – trying to crowd 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey inside, but not to the point of leaving Purdue’s capable perimeter shooters open. Gonzaga is familiar with the conundrum because it is essentially what the Zags were able to do to opponents during a surge over the second half of the season that propelled them into Sweet 16.

Nine times the Zags have run into No. 1 seeds, nine times they’ve lost. Two of those were top-seeded championship clashes when the Zags lost to North Carolina in 2017 and Baylor in 2021. Next up: Fifth-seeded Gonzaga (27-7) and No. 1 Purdue (31-4) in Friday’s Sweet 16 at Little Caesars Arena, a chance to make history and extend a season that few thought in mid-January would reach the second weekend of March Madness.

DETROIT – To put Zach Edey’s last two seasons into perspective, consider the company he’s keeping. Legendary players like Bill Walton, Ralph Sampson, Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Elvin Hayes, Oscar Robertson and Rick Barry.