Decade in Review: Gonzaga basketball made plenty of lasting memories over past 10 years

Gonzaga basketball grew from a national brand into a national power over the last decade.

The Bulldogs played 361 games, winning 307, more than any other Division I program. The Zags stacked up milestones, extended long-standing streaks and came within a possession or two of winning a national championship.

Here are 10 GU highlights from the last decade.

Flirting with perfection: There are probably 10 worthy highlights alone from the magical 2016-17 season.

The Zags won their first 29 games, pummeling every West Coast Conference team by double digits before losing to BYU in the regular-season finale. GU roughed up No. 21 Saint Mary’s 79-56 at the McCarthey Athletic Center and 74-64 in Moraga, California, with ESPN’s GameDay crew on hand.

Gonzaga (37-2) led with less than 2 minutes left in its losses to BYU and to North Carolina in the NCAA championship game.

Mathews for 3, and first Final Four: Gonzaga broke through for its first Final Four with an 83-59 rout over Xavier. That was the easy part. The real work came in two previous rounds against Northwestern and West Virginia.

Jordan Mathews made a 3-pointer from the wing, arguably the biggest shot in program history, to give Gonzaga the lead in the final minute and the Zags held off West Virginia 61-58 to advance to the Elite Eight.

The Zags reached the Sweet 16 with a white-knuckle 79-73 win over Northwestern. Gonzaga blew most of a 22-point lead, but freshmen Zach Collins and Killian Tillie were clutch as the Zags held off the Wildcats.

In a national semifinal, South Carolina’s 16-0 run wiped out Gonzaga’s 14-point lead, but Collins hit a 3-pointer – the ball wedging between the rim and backboard momentarily before falling through the net – to put the Zags ahead to stay. GU advanced to the championship game with a nervy 77-73 win.

A Nigel Williams-Goss bank shot put Gonzaga on top 65-63, but North Carolina scored the final eight points to claim the national championship. Williams-Goss scored Gonzaga’s last eight points, but he sprained his ankle with 1:25 left, the same ankle he tweaked against South Carolina.

Przemek Karnowski finished with an NCAA record 137 career wins and won the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award as the nation’s top center. Collins became the first one-and-done freshman in school history.

2019 Final Four bid falls short: Gonzaga knocked on the door of another Final Four last season, coming up short in a 75-69 Elite Eight loss to Texas Tech, the eventual national runner-up.

The Zags twice reached No. 1 in the polls, the first time following an 89-87 thriller over Duke in November for the Maui Invitational championship – GU’s first win over a No. 1-ranked team. The Zags replaced Duke again at No. 1 late in the regular season.

Gonzaga made the NCAA Tournament for the 21st straight season, the fourth-longest active streak. The Zags reached at least the Sweet 16 for the fifth consecutive year, the nation’s longest active streak.

Rui mania, Clarke acrobatics: The dynamic duo of Rui Hachimura and Brandon Clarke earned multiple All-America honors. They became the first pair of Zags taken in the first round of the same draft.

Hachimura, followed by a sizable Japanese media contingent most of the season, was named MVP of the Maui Invitational. He scored the go-ahead basket against Duke with 1:13 left. Hachimura also hit a 15-footer in the closing second to lift Gonzaga past Washington 81-79.

Hachimura won the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award.

Clarke obliterated the Gonzaga and WCC single-season blocks record. He scored 36 points – eclipsing Adam Morrison’s school-record 35 in an NCAA Tournament game – in a second-round win over Baylor.

Rising to the top: The 2013 Zags went where no Zags had gone before. Gonzaga reached No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time in program history after concluding the regular season with a 29-2 record.

Gonzaga, led by All-American Kelly Olynyk, became the first 30-win squad in program history and achieved another milestone with a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Zags’ 32-win season ended on a sour note with a second-round loss to Wichita State.

Memorable 2013 games: The Zags lost twice in nonconference, falling to No. 13 Illinois and a few weeks later to No. 13 Butler, the latter on Roosevelt Jones’ steal of an inbounds pass with 3.5 seconds left and winning basket.

Gary Bell Jr. nailed a 3-pointer with 37 seconds left in a 69-68 road win over No. 22 Oklahoma State. Kevin Pangos shook off a tough shooting night by driving the length of the floor for the winner against WSU (71-69). Olynyk and Elias Harris made big buckets and free throws late in a 70-65 victory over BYU late in the regular season that positioned the Zags to move into the No. 1 ranking.

Elite season part II: The 2015 Zags (35-3) didn’t reach No. 1 (they were ranked as high as No. 2) and didn’t grab a No. 1 seed (they were a two), but they made the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history.

Gonzaga had a 22-game winning streak, won the WCC Tournament and posted a trio of double-digit victories in the NCAA Tournament. GU was within 53-51 but scored just one point in the final 5:40 and lost 66-52 to eventual national champion Duke.

Kyle Wiltjer authored a 45-point game against Pacific, third on the school’s all-time list and the most by a Zag in 54 years.

Zags keep streak alive in 2016: Gonzaga’s streak of 21 NCAA Tournament appearances endured two serious challenges in the decade, most recently in 2016.

The Zags were stung by injuries and narrow losses – Texas A&M (62-61), Arizona (68-63), UCLA (71-66), BYU (69-68), Saint Mary’s (70-67 and 63-58) and SMU (69-60). They entered the WCC Tournament knowing they probably had to win it to reach the NCAA Tournament.

Gonzaga’s guard play caught up with the frontcourt tandem of Kyle Wiltjer and Domantas Sabonis as the season progressed. Josh Perkins had 17 points and Eric McClellan 15 in an 88-84 win over BYU in the semifinals. McClellan scored 20 points – 17 in the second half – as the Zags beat top-seeded Saint Mary’s 85-75 in the title game.

“Hey, all is well again in Zagville, huh?” said coach Mark Few, whose dad, Norm, wiped away tears during the on-court celebration.

Gonzaga, seeded 11th, pounded sixth-seeded Seton Hall 68-52 in the opener and flattened No. 3 Utah 82-59 two days later. Syracuse ended the Zags’ season with a 15-3 closing run for a 63-60 win in the Sweet 16.

Up-and-down 2011 Zags persevere: The 2011 season was a roller-coaster ride for the Zags, who were 4-5 after suffering three straight nonconference losses. GU endured another three-game losing streak in the WCC – its first in 14 seasons – capped by a 73-71 home loss to rival Saint Mary’s on Mickey McConnell’s 15-foot jumper. That setback dropped Gonzaga to 3-3 in conference and tied for fourth.

The Zags came all the way back – tougher to do back then with a 14-game conference slate – to earn a share of their 11th consecutive WCC title. Late free throws by Sam Dower Jr. and Robert Sacre pushed Gonzaga past the Gaels 89-85 in overtime in Moraga.

The Zags were probably on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, but they left nothing to chance, topping San Francisco 71-67 in the WCC Tournament semifinals and Saint Mary’s 75-63 in the championship.

Tourney MVP Marquise Carter made seven free throws in the final 43 seconds to hold off the Dons. Steven Gray, sporting a bandage on a cut near his eye that required four stitches, scored 15 points in the title game.