Gonzaga beats Xavier 83-59 to reach first Final Four

But this is his first time, he’s not ready.

UNCHARTERED WATERS: Oregon will look to become the first double-digit seed to reach the Final Four. I mean, it’s been a long time coming.

The tension in the game elevated quickly, as Jackson picked up his second foul of the half – and second in 17 seconds – with 17:23 left in the first half. “They can out muscle you and play hard”, Slessinger said of SC. But it very likely could have faded quickly if he’d cared more about personal enrichment than the very earnest pursuit of improving his team on a daily basis.

This will be the third meeting between the teams this season with the home team winning both.

DD: It’s always so hard to compare.

But for this team, in this tournament, Gonzaga’s journey has no reason to stop now. Yet they leave their third Sweet 16 under coach Steve Alford short of the Elite Eight.

If one of them should win the title, it would be the first for a school west of the MS in a decade, and the first by a true West Coast team since UCLA in 1995. “We’ve certainly been good enough during that time to get there and we just didn’t get it done”. And that he would have a chance to appear in the Final Four? With trips to the Sweet 16 in his first two seasons, he could have easily moved on to higher profile and more lucrative spots nearly any year since.

“Heck of a college basketball game if you don’t care who won”, Carolina coach Roy Williams said afterward. What was it like playing for Few early on in his tenure? “I expect so much out of myself that when I make a mistake I get down, but I give credit to these guys and just putting confidence in me, telling me I have to keep playing, and that everybody makes mistakes, I just have to play through it”. “I think he’s done a tremendous job”. They are really, really good. “I think everybody will be pretty excited about the opportunity to go to Phoenix and play for a national title”.

The players before helped paved the way by setting the standard in Spokane while constantly hearing the they’re-overrated cries.

Whatever confluence of breaks brought these players and this coach to the same table wearing the same gear, the result was undeniable.

DD: It’s been huge.

A couple of my AAU teammates as well as a high school teammate were at Gonzaga, like Richie Frahm, Casey Calvary, and Zach Gourde. In the two previous games between the teams this year, which they split, Allen scored one point in the loss and 26 points in a win.

Yet the 19-year-old sent the ecstatic Gonzaga fans in the stands even wilder. They have a monster rebounder in Hicks and one of the nation’s best defenders in Pinson.

So you still can reject them if you like, sneer at their conference schedule, call them a mid-major.

The loss also ends a remarkable run for Xavier in the NCAA Tournament. Only two others had made the Elite Eight before with No. 10 Lamar accomplishing the feat in 1991 and No. 11 Gonzaga – under OR coach Kelly Graves – in 2011. In state basketball programs have had trouble keeping homegrown talent but with the way SC has been rolling through the tournament that should no longer be a problem for them.

We all have our “Cinderella Teams”. “Why can’t we have legitimate title aspirations?” They had the No. 1 seed in 2013 when they lost in the second round to Wichita State. It goes back to recruiting high-level guys. “Never had a bad practice, never showed up just to put in time”. It’s like criticizing Alabama football because it hasn’t won a Super Bowl.

So I’m putting my grudges aside until next season, when the Zags come back to Portland and give the Pilots a reminder of how much further behind we are. “And this was a culture win, and a culture statement”. It’s unbelievably awesome to be around. “You don’t see that a lot in the one-and-done era”.

DD: Yes they are!

The SEC has the most wins of any league (11-4) in this year’s field of 68, followed closely by the Pac-12 (10-3). “If that’s going to happen to Joel, I would rather have that happen Tuesday night as opposed to Wednesday night”.