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Gonzaga basketball is the definition of consistency. The Bulldogs have gone from fad to NCAA fashion.
January 19, 2016It’s a nearly implausible story. A small Jesuit school from geographically-isolated eastern Washington has rattled off 17 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and emerged as one of college basketball’s strongest and most consistent brands. Gonzaga basketball is not a fad. They aren’t a school that just got hot. They have become embedded in the fabric of the sport.
So, just how did all of this come about?
A huge part of Gonzaga’s success has been the job that Mark Few has done in his 17 seasons as head coach at the school. Few is 445-106 at Gonzaga, appearing in the NCAA tournament every single season he’s been at the helm. He took over after former coach Dan Monson bolted from Gonzaga shortly after taking the little-known Bulldogs to the Elite Eight in 1999. Many could have perceived this as the end to Gonzaga’s Cinderella story – a flash in the pan of success ended by the departure of a hot young coach. But Gonzaga hired a friendly face in Few, who has spent his whole career at the school, starting as a graduate assistant back in 1989, and remaining on the staff as an assistant until his promotion in the spring of 1999.
Few and Gonzaga are perfect for each other. He’s comfortable in the upper left corner of the U.S. and enjoys experiencing its many wonders. He even schedules some practices around his fly-fishing schedule, making the players come in earlier than normal so he can get out and fish later in the day.
He is happy out of the limelight and shies away from many of the draws of a big-time program. He even hosts his local radio show in his office.
Few’s name has been rumored for dozens of job openings over the years, but he’s never left for a bigger program, as many thought he would. He has cited his opportunity to strike a strong work-life balance and spend time with his family and the opportunity to experience the outdoors at his whim as major reasons for never leaving.
Few has also built a program that doesn’t rely on one superstar for its success. It’s very much a program that depends on “system” guys; guys that Few can bring in every year and experience the same results.
Located in Spokane and being a smaller institution, with fewer resources than schools it usually finds itself rubbing shoulders with in the top 25, Gonzaga has crafted a recruiting style that works for the Bulldogs. As Marc Tracy wrote in The New York Times, “Gonzaga has developed something like a Moneyball approach to recruiting, offering itself as a home to tall, talented Europeans as well as Americans who were not ideal fits at their old programs.”
The most impressive aspect of Gonzaga’s story is its consistency. We’ve seen many teams find some magic in the tournament one year and then disappear the next. Schools like Valparaiso, Florida Gulf Coast, and George Mason – to name a few. But somehow, Gonzaga didn’t fall victim to that same fate.
Throughout Gonzaga’s 17-year run the Bulldogs have won nearly 81 percent of their games, captured 13 West Coast Conference tournament championships, attained a No. 1-seed in the tournament, and even reached the top spot in the national polls in the regular season. And, by the way, Gonzaga has sent nine guys to the NBA.
All of these feats seemed unfathomable for a school of Gonzaga’s stature when the Bulldogs began their run in the late 90s. But now, other schools of similar size have emerged on the college basketball scene. Butler, Virginia Commonwealth University, and George Mason have even surpassed Gonzaga in terms of tournament success, making it all the way to Final Four. In 2014, Wichita State was a No. 1-seed in the tournament.
But it’s been Gonzaga’s consistency that has inspired programs aspiring to lose the tag of “mid-major.” As Wichita State head coach Greg Marshall told the Jim Rome show in 2013, “All non-BCS programs want to be like Gonzaga. Including Butler, including VCU, and Wichita State, we’re the same way. That’s our plan. We want to be like Gonzaga … How do you do that? You go to multiple tournaments, you win games, and you do that over and over and over.”
In effect, Gonzaga has helped shed the mid-major label from lesser-known schools. Few told USA Today in 2014 that the label has lost meaning, saying, “I don’t even know what mid-major means anymore … All I know is for back-to-back years we’re going to have a non-football or non-BCS school as a No.1 seed in the (NCAA tournament).”
The brand that the program has created has been a key ingredient of its success.
Since 1999, Gonzaga has done whatever it can to promote its name, playing a total of 76 teams ranked in the AP Top 25. The Bulldogs’ willingness to schedule anyone at anytime has splattered the program across national televsion.
The branding of the basketball program has had quite the impact on the school itself. In 1998, the year prior to the beginning of Gonzaga’s run, the freshmen enrollment was 569. This past year, Gonzaga’s freshmen enrollment was 1,338 – a 135 percent increase. In total, the school enrolled around 7,400 students this year – a 77 percent increase over the 4,185 who were enrolled in 1999. The school’s finances have improved as well, with its endowment reaching over $173 million in 2013 when the team was ranked atop the AP polls, nearly double the school’s endowment from 1999.
This year, Gonzaga looks to be in similar form. The Bulldogs have already spent some time in the top 10 of the polls and should contend for a conference title and tournament birth yet again.
What was once thought of as a Cinderella ride, is now the norm for Gonzaga basketball, because, well, the Bulldogs keep winning games – over, and over, and over.