Gonzaga went to the National Championship last year and narrowly lost to North Carolina. Many say if lottery pick Zach Collins was in the game they would have won, but after 14 minutes he fouled out with 9 points and 7 rebounds. This year’s team is a lot different, though, as they lost starters Nigel Williams-Goss, Przemek Karnowski, Jordan Matthews, and key bench player Zach Collins. While they still have Josh Perkins and Johnathan Williams, they lost a lot of their key players, but somehow, like they always do, they succeed and are currently ranked 7th in the nation with 11 straight wins.

West Coast Bias?

Gonzaga plays a lot of their games late at night: around 10 or 11 o’clock eastern time. Unlike the teams that play in the Pac-12 and get air time because they are from a power conference, Gonzaga plays in the West Coast Conference, which means unless they are playing St. Mary’s no one watches the game. The talent gap between the teams is too wide and blow outs aren’t really a reason to stay up late on a school night.

Strength of schedule.

Gonzaga is 131st in Strength of schedule, with marquee wins that include Texas, Ohio State, Creighton, and St. Mary’s. There are not many big wins besides those, except for maybe Washington, who is having a good year but is not looked upon as a tournament team. Their losses are San Diego St., Villanova, St. Mary’s and Florida, so while they don’t have the best wins, they have beaten everyone who they have to beat.

While Gonzaga is not the dominant team they were last year, they have a good team and will be a top 4 seed in the tournament. If i was a betting man (I am), I would not put them past the second round in the NCAA Tournament unless they get a 1 seed, then I would have them losing in the sweet 16.