As Gonzaga’s March Madness streaks grow, they’re getting hard to keep in perspective | Dave Boling
PORTLAND, Ore. – Some of the numbers quantifying Gonzaga’s basketball success become hard to contextualize.
Twenty-seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances for the Gonzaga men’s basketball team, for instance. That streak started in the last century.
An estimated one-third of the U.S. population is younger than Gonzaga’s consecutive NCAA Tournament streak.
And, yes, only two schools have longer streaks (Kansas, 36, and Michigan State, 28) for qualifying for the national tournament.
It means that none of approximately 360 other universities have been able to match GU’s consistent excellence.
Coach Mark Few often needs a hand with the math when asked every year about these things during tournament news conferences. Understandable, there are a number of these things, and, well the memory fades.
After Thursday’s first-round win over Kennesaw State, Few was told it was the 17th straight tournament in which they’d won at least one game.
As he does each year, Few cites the capacities of the players and staff not only get to the tournament, but also to win a game. Those are achievements in which he takes great pride.
There any number of reasons it’s such a rarity.
Over the years, critics of the Zags have claimed that a weak conference contributed to their consistent collection of tournament bids. Even if true, the success once in the tournament (two title games, three Elite 8s, eight Sweet 16s) invalidates those beliefs.
The last time the Zags were ousted in the first game was 2008.
The 24th-ranked Zags were sent to Raleigh to open against No. 25 Davidson in what was essentially a home game.
The famed Stephen Curry, son of former Seattle SuperSonic sharpshooter Dell Curry, was a sophomore and leading Davidson in scoring.
An internet image put a recognizable face to represent that span of time. It was picture of Steph Curry as a sophomore at Davidson.
He looks 13. His jersey flaps unfilled at his chest and sides. The caption read: “This was the last time Gonzaga lost a first-round NCAA game.”
Of course, he’s now recognizable as a 38-year-old man who has aged through a 17-year NBA career.
The age accretion of that face is testament to how long Gonzaga has won at least one game in the NCAA Tournament. Since Steph was a Boy Scout.
Pretty astonishing.
Of course, the Zags’ seedings have generally climbed as their nonconference schedule has been built into one of the toughest in the country, compensating for a perceived lack of quality depth in the West Coast Conference.
Still, take that Kansas, Michigan State and Duke group for comparative purposes. Duke had a string of just seven first-round wins snapped in 2024. Kansas lost in the first round last year. Michigan State lost in a first-four game in 2021.
The 73-64 win over Kennesaw State Thursday was by an uncharacteristically small margin. Does that mean anything moving forward, Saturday, against Texas?
Gonzaga hasn’t had an opener finish within 10 points since 2018, scoring wins by an average margin of 26.6 points.
The most recent time the Zags have had to recover from a first-round scare was 2018, in Boise, when they edged No. 13-seed UNC Greensboro by just four points, 68-64. They came back and topped No. 5 Ohio State, 90-84, before losing in the Sweet 16 to Florida State.
Of course, the second-rounder against Texas will be played at Portland’s Moda Center, where the Zags are now 5-0 all time in NCAA Tournament play.
And, of course, Texas doesn’t have Steph Curry.