You may well be aware there is a team named Kentucky who has spent the better part of this college basketball season running over and through anyone who is put in front of them. The fact that Kentucky play in the SEC of course means that ESPN jumped all over this in a heartbeat and that as a college basketball audience we have been treated to little more than “The Pursuit of Perfection” since some time around mid-December.
Believe it or not there are actually 67 other teams gearing up for the one shot elimination which is March Madness. Some are happy just to be there, while still others would be delighted with an unexpected run to the Sweet Sixteen. There are however a group of schools which will have something to say about Kentucky finishing the season with a perfect record, and one of them is a Catholic school of just over 7,500 students located far, far from ESPN offices in the Pacific Northwest.
It is clear why Gonzaga has its detractors. Mark Few’s bunch have underwhelmed massively on the national stage over the past five years, failing to make the Sweet 16 at any point during that stretch. The nail in the lovable underdogs tag was fully driven in when the Bulldogs were given a shaky #1 seed in 2013, before being bounced in the round of 32 by a Wichita State team which was on a mission. Such is the problem in going from lovable underdog to full on college basketball powerhouse.
The interesting thing about this bunch is that it is probably the best team Few has ever put together in Spokane. The irony of this is that the main reason that the Zags have any hope of beating Kentucky is the play of Kyle Wiltjer, a transfer from the Wildcats themselves. Wiltjer saw the writing on the wall as McDonald’s All American after McDonald’s All American signed with the Wildcats and rather than play limited minutes in a clean up role he transferred to the left coast and has become one of the three or four best offensive players in the country.
Wiltjer has turned his game into that of a stretch four, and if there is one player type that can hurt Kentucky it might be just that. We all know the Wildcats have the size and depth of talent to win almost any type of game. If the tournament were a best of seven or best of five then you may as well just hand Kentucky the trophy right now. If a forward like Wiltjer, with his 53% field goal accuracy and his 47% sharpshooting from three gets hot though it might be a different story in a one off game.
Gonzaga has had stars before though and faded out of contention late in the season. The likes of Adam Morrison and Kelly Olynyk just couldn’t push this crew over the hump. What this Gonzaga version has however is high levels of talented depth. It starts at point guard where the arrival of Wiltjer has taken all the scoring burden away from Kevin Pangos. Though he still drops in 11.5 ppg, Pangos has been able to run the game like a true point guard, as is obvious from his 5 assists per contest.
The Zags also have a giant inside in the shape of Przemek Karnoski, who will bang bodies with Kentucky all day long and often get the better of them. Add in solid role players like Domantas Sabonis, Byron Wesley, and Gary Bell Jr., and you have a well rounded team with a massive scoring threat who will not be at all overawed by facing the Wildcats.
Offensively the Zags match up well with everyone. They lead the nation in field goal percentage, which is the ultimate mark of a well coached team. Kentucky tends to win by making their opponents take bad shots and not giving them the looks they like. This will be less of a problem for a Gonzaga team which is used to making the extra pass to find open men inside or out. The Zags 16.5 assists per game is good for 6th in the nation and that ability to move the ball to space will be crucial when facing the Wildcats monster line up.
Defending Kentucky will prove to be more of a challenge. This is especially true given some of the competition the Bulldogs have face in WCC play this spring. The games against the fast paced BYU offense will help though and it is worth noting just how comprehensively Gonzaga beat the Cougars in the recent WCC Title Game. In that 91-75 win the Zags never really looked out of control or under threat, experience they can lean on when they match up with Kentucky.
If Few can coach a chip on the shoulder mentality into this team throughout March there is no reason they Gonzaga shouldn’t make a deep tournament run. If the Bulldogs do end up facing Kentucky then it becomes the must see match up of the entire NCAA Tournament.