LAS VEGAS — Gonzaga entered the season ranked 21st in the AP Poll and considered a quality team, but one that, if it had aspirations of being Final Four good, might have been a bit too lofty.
The thinking was: With star point guard Ryan Nembhard gone from a team that had its worst season in more than a decade, how good could it possibly be? Last season’s nine losses were the program’s most in 14 years, and it failed to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015.
Gonzaga would likely be given second-tier status. Good, but not too good.
Anyone who thought that, including myself, for example I also ranked Gonzaga 21st in October — misinterpreted the situation. Bad.
The Zags are still good. Damn good.
Mark Few’s program earned its best win of the early season Monday night with a 95-85 victory over No. 8 Alabama in the first round of the Players Era Championship. A match between two dynamic attacking teams was expected to be a race to 90, and that is exactly what transpired.
By the way, four of Gonzaga’s six wins to date have come against power conference competition. That has resulted in Gonzaga rising from No. 21 three weeks ago to No. 12 as of Monday’s poll refresh.
The Bulldogs dropped a cool 1.23 points per possession on Alabama’s head, led by 21 points apiece from a pair of guys with a combined age of 48. Graham Ike, 23, and Tyon Grant-Foster, 25, pushed the pace and paced Alabama’s overmatched front court. Another Gonzaga great, Braden Huff, scored 18 points, followed by 12 from Steele Venters.
“Our starting 3/4/5 had 16 points, and theirs had 60,” a disgruntled Nate Oats said after the game. Oats has spent the past five years at the helm of an Alabama operation that qualifies as a top-10 program in the sport. He knows what competing at the deep end looks like.
It looks like Gonzaga.
“Big, they’re physical, every time we made a run they had an answer,” Oats said. “I got 25 second chance points, it’s hard to win with that.”
The scary part with Gonzaga: it scored 95 points and was just 6 of 22 from 3. Mark Few has a team that is old and proud and certainly looks a lot tougher than some of his previous teams, which had a hint of finesse.
Oats tried to warn his players about the physicality, but sometimes you can’t learn without firsthand experience.
“We showed them a video of Tyon Grant-Foster just destroying people on the glass, multiple signs just keep coming,” Oats said.
The 25-year-old Grant-Foster succeeded in important places in the second half. In total, more than 50% of Gonzaga’s points came from the paint.
“This game is about the sets, the possessions, the broken plays and things like that, and that’s where Ty really shines,” Few said.
Labaron Philon Jr. could be an irresistible talent for the Tide. He is one of the best guards in the country, and perhaps the most talented. Philon finished with 29 points in 30 minutes, as he was unable to score in the last 10.
“He cooked us some pretty good food,” Few said.
Gonzaga completely shut down Philon by throwing a hodgepodge of defenses at him to leave Alabama with no options.
“Gradually we knew what we had to do, and then we started filling in the ditches,” Grant-Foster said.
I love that quote. This team really has spirit.
After seeing Gonzaga up close, it’s clear that there’s enough variety in the Bulldogs’ lineup that it should rival just about anyone in college basketball. Freshman guard Mario Saint-Supery scored all 10 of his points from the foul line against the Tide, but he is the most talented of the group.
“He plays with a lot of spirit and it’s contagious,” Few said. “We’re still ironing things out with the crazy jump passes.”
At 6-0 and facing a still-developing Maryland team on Tuesday night, Gonzaga is poised to be in a good position to play for a championship on Wednesday.
However, the goals seem much bigger than that. And Few is sending signals that he believes this team can match up with some of his best.
“Our wings are bigger than we’ve ever had, and we’re a bigger team, almost like that ’17 team,” Few said.
He’s talking about the 2016-17 team of Nigel Williams-Goss, Przemek Karnowski and Jonathan Williams that went 37-2 but lost the NCAA Tournament championship. Few also called on the 2020-21 team, which won 31-1 with Drew Timme, Corey Kispert and Jalen Suggs, but also had to settle for second place.
Those were the two best teams in Gonzaga history.
“Blue blood level teams,” few said.
This one isn’t part of that group yet, but it’s fair to say that almost everyone smelled Gonzaga’s ceiling this year. Few have a bona fide team, one that has a chance to come out this week with a big statement and a better track record as one of the very best teams in college basketball.
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