(Editor’s Note: this Gonzaga article is a re-post from a year ago; made to coincide with the National Championship game tonight)
The Gonzaga basketball program is exactly like the song “only happy when it rains” by ’90s alt-rock band Garbage. This has nothing to do with the high amounts of precipitation that fall in the Pacific Northwest either. The program is at its best when the situation is less than optimal.
You know I love it when the news is bad
Why it feels so good to feel so sad?
I’m only happy when it rains
I’m only happy when it’s complicated
I’m only happy when it rains
I feel good when things are goin’ wrong
This #11 seeded Gonzaga basketball team will take on a higher seed for the third straight time tonight versus Syracuse. In all three games, GU is/was the favorite. No double digit seeded team in seeding history has ever been a favorite in two, let alone three tourney games.
(Full Game Preview and Prediction here)
Zags forward Kyle Wiltjer on being favored while having such a lower seed:
“I mean, you can be favored or not, doesn’t matter when the ball goes up. So for us, even though we are 11 seed, we try to play with a confidence that we should be much higher. We bring that confidence as a program.”
As a double digit seed, the Zags are 10-6 all time. Who else on the planet is that far above .500 as a double digit seed? The Zags are made to be an underdog; coinciding well their Bulldog nickname/mascot.
Of course, the flip side to Gonzaga basketball winning as an underdog all the time is their losing as the favorite. Here’s where the “I’m only happy when it rains” really starts to kick in.
If seeds hold, a #1 reaches the Final Four, a #2 makes the Elite 8, and #3s, #4s qualify for the Sweet Sixteen. Gonzaga basketball has never made the final four, and only twice reached the Elite 8 (last year as a #2 seed, ’99 as a #11 seed). As a #1 seed in ’13 they fell out in the second round. In ’04 they were a #2, and a #3 in ’05, yet they couldn’t get past the round of 32. Going back to the other side of the coin again, this is the fourth sweet sixteen they have reached as a double digit seed.
This type of roller coaster makes for excellent reality television. Coincidentally, Gonzaga basketball is the only program in the nation with their own reality series. Freshman Josh Perkins described how HBO’s five part docu-series “Gonzaga: the march to madness” played out.
“At first it was kind of awkward having cameras around but you get used to it,” Perkins said.
“The whole deal, it was a cool story because there were a lot of people saying we weren’t going to make the tournament and we put ourselves in a situation where we forced to win the conference tournament in order to get into the (NCAA) tournament so that made the story and the series more sweet.”
Not only did the HBO series have the perfect dramatical story arc, it conformed to the Gonzaga basketball identity. Be at your best when you’re written off; excel when everyone thinks you’ll fail.
Gonzaga basketball coach Mark Few articulated his experience doing the show.
“I was very worried about it because we were very immature I thought at the start of the year, and I think it was processing everything we were going through as well as having to deal with cameras around us was probably a little bit too much, but in a weird kind of way, it might have helped the maturation process that we went through.
“They just kind of ended up dealing with it and it ended up turning out great. So it’s funny how that goes sometimes.”
Few observed the Hawthorn Effect, subjects in studies greatly change their behavior when they know they’re being studied and observed, in his team too.
“I picked up on, boy, Eric and Josh, why are your shirts always off when the HBO cameras are in here, and now we’re in here at a film session and you have your shirts on; I’m baffled by this. So I think they liked their little time to flex and do their thing.”
Said Gonzaga basketball star Eric McClellan:
“It added a little bit pressure on us, no one wants to do a documentary about a team that doesn’t make the tournament, right?”
“Also, a little bit of pressure on us that you got to look good at all times on the cameras too. A little bit of extra haircuts and stuff too, you know how it goes. Gotta look good 24-7.”
“It was a cool opportunity that they picked us, to be first and it really became a part of us.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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