There’s been an answer and a question, two questions actually, in that order, hanging over Gonzaga all season, shadowing it game after game after game, after a mountain of wins and especially after a handful of losses.
Now, the A and the Qs. are melding together in proper order, the Bulldogs themselves doing the rearranging and the responding.
Certainly, they did against No. 9-seeded Baylor on Saturday in the second round of the West region of the NCAA Tournament at Vivint Arena, beating the Bears by the count of 83-71. The game was tight — for a few minutes, anyway. And then, like drips of water seeping out of a loose faucet before blasting out with force, top-seeded Gonzaga flowed forward, hitting shots, tightening its defense, rebounding and running hard, getting into transition, putting the answer after the questions.
That answer has always been: Yes, they are.
The questions: Are these Zags good? And then … How good?
There were always varying degrees of separation in the answer.
Now, the degrees are closing to … real … very … perhaps spectacularly.
Gonzaga looks great-good, not just good-good.
That much is coming clear, after they defeated Fairleigh Dickson in their first game and Baylor in their second. Total up the combined point differential in those mismatches and the margin is 50 points. And in the days ahead? It could continue stacking up, even as the competition stiffens.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said, afterward. “Our effort tonight was exceptional.”
That, it was.
The talented Bulldogs now turn their attention to the Sweet 16 — it took about a minute in the postgame before Few was asked about a rematch with Florida State. His response: “We’re going to enjoy the heck out of this.” He followed that with … “We’ll prepare like crazy.”
His enjoyment stems from the fact that it now appears that all the championship chatter — alongside the aforementioned lingering doubt, especially after Gonzaga’s loss to Saint Mary’s in the WCC tournament title game — is authentic, justified, on target to be actualized, at least as a realistic possibility, for all to see.
“It’s a great challenge that we’re going to take on,” said the Zag’s Brandon Clarke.
This is how that opportunity came about on Saturday:
Gonzaga pressured the Bears early, disrupting their flow. Its intensity on defense increased, allowing the Bulldogs to fly down the floor in transition, making Baylor pay for its mistakes. The Bears struggled to do likewise to their own advantage. A two-point deficit exploded to a 16-point lead by the end of the half.
Baylor tried to throw the anchor out, attempting to slow the pace without stagnating its own offense, but Gonzaga, the opportunist that it is, scrambled around on defense, causing the Bears all kinds of trouble. Through that first half, aggression emerged to the point where bodies were colliding under the basket, falling to the floor, fouls — both common and flagrant — were called.
The more the Bears launched deep balls — they hit 14 against Syracuse in the first round — the more it triggered early offense the other way. But, really, Baylor had no choice but to keep shooting from distance. The Bears’ drives to the basket were met with a wall of defenders. The fact that they made only 4 of 21 shots from beyond the arc was unfortunate for them, but against the resistance Gonzaga was putting up, nobody could think of any other way to put points on the board.
At the start of the second half, Baylor’s inefficiency evaporated, knocking 10 points off the Bulldogs’ lead in less than two minutes, aided, in part, by a switched-up Bears defense. Even as Gonzaga built its lead back to 15, Baylor hung tough, reducing it to eight, but it never could completely solve what the more talented Bulldogs were doing. Particularly, as they went inside down the stretch to Clarke, who scored 36 points.
Gonzaga just kept scoring and scoring. Ultimately, it soared.
How good are the Zags?
Good enough for the Sweet 16, for the fifth-straight season, and maybe even for a championship.
GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” with Jake Scott weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.
