Gonzaga will be the next college basketball Blue Blood

Chris Phillips   |  

Mar 10, 2022

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Gonzaga basketball is one of the winningest programs in the last 20 years. When you talk about blue blood programs is Gonzaga a name that comes to mind?

College basketball has its blue blood schools. North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, Indiana, and Duke are the most storied and winningest programs. These schools always get top recruits and have winning teams. There are a few other schools that have a case to be in that group, such as UConn and Villanova. But what about the Gonzaga Bulldogs?

The Zags first appeared on an NCAA bracket in 1995. They took the nation by storm as pretty much everyone who lived outside of Spokane and wasn’t an alumnus never heard of them. That team didn’t do much in their initial big dance.

However, four years later the Bulldogs went on a run led by guards Richie Fromm and Matt Santangelo that endeared them to the hearts of many. Dan Monson’s squad made it to the Elite Eight and put the Zags on the map.

Since that year the Gonzaga Bulldogs have dominated the West Coast Conference. As a matter of fact, GU won or shared the conference regular-season title 22 out of 24 years. The only exceptions are 1999-2000 Pepperdine and 2011-12 St. Mary’s.

Gonzaga won the conference tournament 19 times in the same span. In fact, the Zags have a 77 win percentage in the WCC title game, including 9-1 in their last 10. Since 1987 they lead the conference with a 79 win percentage. For reference, the next closest is Pepperdine with a 54 win percentage. That’s domination.

Few Good Years

Once current head coach Mark Few took over in 1999 Gonzaga soared to even higher heights. Only two times under Few’s watch has the team lost double-digit games on the year. Few’s regular-season win/loss record is 656-128. The Bulldogs have gone to the WCC Tournament 22 times and have won it all 19 times. Coach Few’s NCAA record is just as stellar with a 36-21 record.

Gonzaga reached the following in tournament play: Sweet 16 (6); Elite Eight (2); Final Four (2); and twice to the Championship, unfortunately losing both times. During the 2020-21 season, the Gonzaga Bulldogs had a record of 31-1, losing only the Championship game.

So what does this mean? If UConn and Villanova are next in line to enter the ring of blue bloods then Gonzaga can’t be too far behind them. With all the groundwork done (recruiting and landing top-five recruits, going anywhere to play other elite programs, and getting national media attention), Gonzaga’s dominance over its conference, the next step is to win a few national titles. Because let’s be honest nationally, nobody really cares about conference titles. But I will argue this last point.

If Gonzaga can have another 20 years of success like they are having under Few then the Bulldogs might just bully their way into the aforementioned group of blue blood schools. Yes, national titles are the proverbial straw that stirs the drink. But for a “mid-major” to produce multiple impactful NBA talent, talking about John Stockton and more recently Jalen Suggs and Zach Collins, and future lottery picks Chet Holmgren, and Nolan Hickman, then this program can be right up there with the big boys.

Gonzaga is on the way to becoming the next college basketball blue blood school.