By now, we are all familiar with the Gonzaga Bulldogs being Cinderella. But, I may have a different and not so popular opinion about them. In my opinion, it is time to start dropping them to the three, four or even possibly, the five seed in the NCAA Tournament. They have been going to the NCAA tournament since 1999, which yes in itself is impressive, but lets dive a little closer and see what it really is.
1999 NCAA Tournament Seed 10
Gonzaga matched up as a No.10 seed with No.7 Minnesota which they would go on to win. Their Second Round matchup would be against number No.2 Stanford, which would send them to their first Sweet 16. In the Sweet 16 matchup, they would handle No.6 Florida, before eventually falling short to UConn, who would go on to win the national title over Duke that year.
2000 NCAA Tournament Seed 10
Gonzaga would match up against number No.7 seed Louisville in the first round and No.2 St. John’s in the second round, to reach back to back Sweet 16’s. Although this time, they would fall short of reaching the Elite Eight with a loss to Purdue.
2004 NCAA Tournament Seed 2
Gonzaga would match up against No.15 seed Valparaiso, in which they would win, but then would end up losing to No.10 seed Nevada. This was the first instance of Gonzaga being over seeded because of previous success.
2005 NCAA Tournament Seed 3
Gonzaga was punished for losing in the second round, and was then seeded third. In the first round, they beat No.14 seed Winthrop, before bowing out to No.6 seed Texas Tech. Yet another disappointing end to a tournament for them.
2007 NCAA Tournament Seed 10
Gonzaga would lose in the first round to No.7 seed Indiana. Not a terrible loss, but a loss, nonetheless.
2013 NCAA Tournament Seed 1
Gonzaga gets first 1 seed in University history and promptly go on to beat No. 16 seed Southern University by only six. They would end up losing their next round game against Wichita State.
As you can see, these are just a few examples of when they were seeded, and what they did. I am not saying they don’t deserve to be in the NCAA tournament at all, but what I am saying is maybe its time we scale back the hype.
Yes, this year they went 24-3, but keep in mind they play in the West Coast Conference–WCC for short–with the likes of San Francisco, Pepperdine, Pacific, Portland University and so on. So out of those 24 wins 13 of them were from their conference. Their losses this year in the regular season were to Duke, Alabama, and fellow WCC rival, Saint Mary’s.
Again, I am not saying Gonzaga isn’t a solid team I am just saying its time to dial the hype down. I had someone tell me they made seven Straight Sweet 16’s. To which I respond, its easy when you are playing a No.16 seed in the first round, then an eight or nine seed in the second round. That being said, it’s time to let Zags go back to being a Cinderella give them the three, four–or hell–even the five seed, and lets see them make a deep run, because being the No.1 seed isn’t it for them.