Down goes Gonzaga: BYU basketball stuns No. 1 Bulldogs

College basketball has a new No. 1.

The key difference between BYU (21-10, 12-6 West Coast Conference) and Gonzaga (29-1, 17-1 WCC) was the 3-point shooting.

Again, as a reminder, Gonzaga has wins over: No. 13 Florida, which lost Saturday to Kentucky but remains one game back in the SEC standings; Iowa State, which snapped Kansas’ nation-leading 51-game home winning streak three weeks ago and beat No. 9 Baylor on Saturday; and No. 4 Arizona, which is tied for first with OR in the Pac-12.

The Cardinals (23-6, 11-5) rode a 14-4 run entering the break for a 15-point lead that grew to 23 early in the second half.

No. 22 Butler 88, Xavier 79: Kelan Martin had another big game, scoring 25 points, and the Bulldogs followedtheir biggest road win of the season with another on Sunday, pulling away in the closing minutes for a Big East victory over the Musketeers.

To which, when asked instantly and repeatedly what the loss meant to the Zags’ status as a presumptive No. 1 seed, I replied, “Nothing”. BYU waited until its final regular-season game to flash its potential.

Gonzaga (29-1, 17-1) still won their fifth straight WCC title and will be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament next week in Las Vegas.

The Pac-12 is in position to have a No. 1 NCAA seed after Gonzaga’s loss.

BYU, on the other hand, gets a huge marquee win on national television that ran its overall record to 21-10. It was also the first time that Gonzaga had trailed in the second half in a conference game all season. It just goes to show you that Gonzaga doesn’t have the margin for error that some high-majors do; the Bulldogs have impressive nonconference wins against Florida and Arizona, but they simply don’t have the opportunities schools like UCLA, Kansas and North Carolina do in the latter months of the season. As for WCC play, BYU knows Gonzaga very, very well, as evidenced by the fact that the Cougars have beat GU in Spokane each of the last three seasons. It also doesn’t alter what Gonzaga can reasonably hope to accomplish going forward.

It was supposed to be another routine win for Gonzaga. They looked like a team that finally succumbed to the pressure. Four of previous five teams to have that start have advanced to Final Four. The Zags consistently get stellar guard play from all three starters, led by Washington transfer Nigel Williams-Goss, who is incredibly efficient for a lead guard. The Zags have a star senior 7-footer in Przemek Karnowski. Mark Few’s technical foul with 12:13 left in the game was key because it woke up the sleep-walking Nick Emery.

Saturday didn’t change that. After forcing a few early shots, the BYU offense settled down, and they were able to work themselves back into the game behind hot shooting from Elijah Bryant and T.J. Haws beyond the arc and some good mid-range shooting from Eric Mika.

And with the loss, the usual chorus of Gonzaga-is-overrated has already begun. Give BYU credit. They were tough and resilient.