Remember Drew Timme, the big guy with the big mustache from Gonzaga’s run to the 2021 title game? He’s averaging career highs in points, rebounds, and assists in his final college season. Perhaps the Bulldogs are peaking now because they’ve got experience you rarely see from a legit title contender in the one-and-done era of college hoops: Their top five leading scorers are all juniors or seniors, and none of their rotation players are freshmen. The Bulldogs have the most efficient offense in college basketball yet again, and are the only team of the top 11 seeds in the West regional which actually won its conference tourney, so it’s the only team in this part of the bracket that closed strong. Gonzaga closed strong with a pair of comfortable wins over the second-best team in the WCC, Saint Mary’s, which happens to be the 5-seed in this region. But they also put up 100 points in a win over Alabama-the team who would go on to be, as it turns out, the overall no. 2 in November before suffering blowout losses to Texas and Purdue. But things went differently for this year’s Bulldogs, who were ranked no. 1 seed, are called a fraud by every bracket analyst online except for me, and then lose in the Sweet 16. They normally enter the NCAA tournament with a record like 34-1, get the overall no. You probably didn’t hear too much hype about the Zags this year. The NCAA will crumble, the 4-point line will be added to all basketball courts, large swaths of Washington will fall into the Pacific Ocean, but I will hold the line on the Zags, as long as it takes.
I promise to continue picking Gonzaga to make the Final Four until it wins this damn thing. The Ringer ’s Rodger Sherman goes region by region to break down the teams that could make the Final Four, the double-digit seeds that have interesting stories, and the biggest questions entering the event.
But brackets need to be filled out by Thursday, so we have to try. The NCAA selection committee has released its men’s March Madness bracket, and it’s hard to get a grasp on the field right away.
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