They Should Pronounce Gonzaga Right
Who are you going to believe?
Denny Crum or some Vegas insider’s lying odds?
Advised of his team’s NCAA Tournament draw on Sunday afternoon, Louisville’s rather blase basketball CEO professed to know only that it was “too hot” in Tucson (a joke) and that his first-round opponent had won 24 games this winter (a fact).
“Obviously,” Crum said at a post-bracket briefing, “Gon-zaw-ga is an excellent team.”
Oh, man. Here we go again.
Didn’t we do elementary elocution last March? Doesn’t everyone in Bracketville know by now that it’s Zag as in bag, as in brag, as in the white flag Minnesota, Stanford and Florida had to wave when Gonzaga breezed past them into the Elite Eight? Zag as in coefficient of drag, a formula familiar to readers of Road and Track magazine and writers trying to describe the sensation of Quentin Hall in the open court. Zag as in gag, which is what former coach Dan Monson seemed on the verge of doing whenever the name was mispronounced.
Denny, if you don’t zig, you Zag. You don’t Zawg.
Not that the new guy, Mark Few, is going to take Crum to task for anything at this point.
“Coach Crum has won about 10,000 games over his career,” noted GU’s rookie head coach, “compared to 24 for the guy standing here talking to you.”
If Louisville’s usual address in the college polls is now generally in the 20s instead of the oughts where it used to live, the neighborhood is still tony enough that new money like Gonzaga doesn’t necessarily merit a double-take when it moves in. So as he met the local press in Louisville, Crum had to be coached on the data that the Bulldogs return three starters from last year’s Elite Eight team, and that their one common opponent with the Cardinals has been Cincinnati.
“They got beat by seven,” he said, checking a sheet. “We got beat by 10 and nine. So they’re two-point favorites.”
OK. Except in Vegas, where the Zags are two-point underdogs.
Underdogs with garish, electric neckties that keep flashing “Underdog! Beware of underdog! Bite you right in the keister!”
“There’s no sneaking up on anybody this year,” admitted senior Matt Santangelo.
There is a reputation, mostly misplaced, that you do not have to sneak up on the Cardinals, necessarily. Perhaps because they went on such a run in the 1980s - two championships and two thirds in the space of seven years - the Cardinals have been seen vaguely as underachievers since.
Last year, for instance, as a seventh seed they were dropped by 10th-seeded Creighton in the first round.
Coincidence alert! Here they are a seventh seed again! Against a little Catholic outfit seeded 10th! Jim Nantz, clip and save this eerie parallel!
Otherwise, the Cardinals’ recent history includes dodging a bullet from an 11th seed (Tulsa) in overtime in 1996, and losing in the second round to a No. 12 (Ball State) in 1990. There’s nothing else very shameful in the resume.
While we’re on the history jag, let’s remind you that this is the 20th anniversary of that first Louisville championship team of 1980, starring Darrell Griffith as Dr. Dunkenstein.
Of course, it’s also the one-year anniversary of the Zag revelation.
There was no less excitement in the party room at Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park on Sunday for this waltz through the bracket than there was a year ago, but it wasn’t quite as giddy. The difference was obvious - last year, the Zags had atoned for their disappointment at not being selected the year before.
This time, they had merely stared down expectation, and for the past week have been discovering just how good mere relief feels.
“This year makes last year so much sweeter,” said Santangelo. “Last year, it was my first trip to the tournament. I didn’t know anything else but to go in and win games. I didn’t know that we weren’t supposed to.
“This year it’s going to be a lot tougher to recreate that success we had - not saying we won’t do it or can’t do it. But we lived with that all year. Fighting to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke was one of our major motivations, and we’ve put ourselves back on the stage to really do that.”
The fact is, that run will not be duplicated - even if the Zags win three games again. It will always be an achievement deserving of its own trophy case. Just down the hall from the one devoted to this season, a special achievement in its own right.
“Sure, there’s a whole lot of pressure - more than anything we felt last year,” said another senior, Axel Dench. “People from the getgo, since the UConn game last year, have been expecting the same - looking to us as the bearers of that success. And when we slipped a couple of times, the critics were quick to jump off and say we weren’t as good as last year.
“I’d say we’re back where we belong. And I think we’re going to have fun with it again.”
That was, in fact, the best part of the run last year - the playfulness with which Gonzaga approached the entire phenomenon. It was as far removed from the old Hoya paranoia or one of Bobby Knight’s pressconference tirades as Dr. Dre is from Doris Day.
They know how great it is to be here, which is not to say they’re just glad to be here.
It’s probably why a few of the Zags could be seen cheering when West Coast Conference rival Pepperdine survived the rash of Championship Week upsets to hang on for an at-large bid to Buffalo (and a date with Indiana’s Mr. Congeniality). It’s a joy worth sharing.
So is this irony: A year ago, the Zags were actually the betting favorites before anyone had heard of them, and now they’re the underdogs.
Or UnderZawgs. Take your pick.