LAS VEGAS — The Gonzaga Bulldogs were in unfamiliar territory on Tuesday evening in Las Vegas, coming into the WCC Championship game as the lower seeded team thanks to a regular season tie with Saint Mary's.
The tiebreaker, in this case each team's NET ranking, favored the Gaels, so Gonzaga went into the game wearing their dark uniforms - reserved for the 'away' team.
And they weren't happy about it.
"Coach Few talked about it all week, dark uniforms on Tuesday," Junior forward Julian Strawther said after the game. "That’s not like us and you should take it as a sign of disrespect."
Whatever it was that motivated the Bulldogs on Tuesday, uniforms or otherwise, it worked to perfection as Gonzaga put together one of their best games of the year, dismantling conference rival Saint Mary's by a score of 77-51 to win their 21st WCC Championship and securing an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
Of course, the Zags were going to go dancing either way, but a win against the Gaels - and a dominant one like that - proves this team is peaking at the perfect time to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
Locked on Zags podcast host Andy Patton believes this team's hot streak heading into March will help Mark Few's team make a deep run - as well as the difficulties they faced earlier in the season.
"They are battle tested," Patton said. "Coming into the NCAA Tournament playing the best basketball you've played all season long, while also having experienced some of those close games...this is going to be a really really hard team to stop."
Gonzaga's offense ranks first in the country, per KenPom, but their defense currently ranks 74th - and no team in the KenPom era (dating back to 2002) has won a championship ranked lower than 22nd.
While that certainly doesn't make it impossible for the Zags, especially with how they have performed lately, it does highlight the biggest flaw on this team, namely pick and roll defense and overall rim protection.
Still, this team's recent run of success and ability to battle adversity and win close games will make them a team no one wants to play in March, and a few games going their way this week could land them as a two seed in the NCAA Tournament come Selection Sunday.