Gonzaga still a team for all time despite not capping off undefeated season with a natty

DerekJohnson

https://cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/gonzaga-still-a-team-for-all-time-despite-not-capping-off-undefeated-season-with-a-national-championship/

huskyhooligan

Nope.

The hard truth is that probably both of these teams wouldn't be anything in the era before 1 and done / straight to pro. As much as Washington doogs like myself like to imagine how good UW would be if player XXX didn't leave early, imagine how good Kentucky, Duke, UNC, etc would be if all their players stayed.

In recent history, sure. Why not?

DerekJohnson

I don't see how a team can be immortalized if they don't win the title

RaceBannon

They aren't even top 20 since the 76 Hoosier sqwad

rodmansrage

There are no moral victories for the runner-up.

proceeds to write an entire article about how the 'runner up' is a team for all time.

BleachedAnusDawg

There were two championship caliber teams in the tournament. Gonzaga and Baylor. Baylor kicked their ass, though. You could play a 7 game series between those two and Baylor wins in 5 or 6. Probably 5. The what-if scenario being kicked around today is that if Baylor didn't have to shut down mid-season due to COVID that they probably go undefeated. The other one I heard is that if the December Gonzaga-Baylor game didn't get cancelled, Gonzaga would've had a chance to experience Baylor's speed and physicality and the game yesterday is a totally different story.

I will credit Gonzaga for scheduling as many top programs OOC as they can, and for winning 75%+ of those games.

EwaDawg

BleachedAnusDawg said:

There were two championship caliber teams in the tournament. Gonzaga and Baylor. Baylor kicked their ass, though. You could play a 7 game series between those two and Baylor wins in 5 or 6. Probably 5. The what-if scenario being kicked around today is that if Baylor didn't have to shut down mid-season due to COVID that they probably go undefeated. The other one I heard is that if the December Gonzaga-Baylor game didn't get cancelled, Gonzaga would've had a chance to experience Baylor's speed and physicality and the game yesterday is a totally different story.

I will credit Gonzaga for scheduling as many top programs OOC as they can, and for winning 75%+ of those games.

Gonzaga deserves a bunch of credit but not as much as most of their fans claim.

They are nearly always a lock for the dance because they play in a weak conference. That can not be disputed.

That they may be deserving of a tournament bid also MUST be acknowledged. Sure, more recently than previously (for the fucktards).

That they have become better over these 20 plus years of (sometimes) undeserved hype is a given. Thus being due to being able to recruit better because of early undeserved hype is a very real probability.

They, have NEVER won the tourney despite 22 or 23 tries.

Its more than bad luck. Its talent, coaching, and the rigors of playing 6 fairly competitive games in just over two weeks against teams that mostly deserve to be there. Not winning it all, despite 20+ tries, put the zags squarely in the top 25 teams for that period. Kind of like Boise state. (Don't even try to compare qualifying for the 68 slot hoops tournament with the 4 team college football playoff. If 16 teams were eligible in football, we have no idea how Boise would have done. If you are not in the tourney, you can't play for the championship.)

Everyone is correct and everyone is wrong.

Their coach has a few years left to actually win one. It is not guaranteed that he will. I'll take the under. Even if I lose, I still have enjoyed the past 22 years.

And, I have the next year until the zags get a chance to prove themselves (or not prove themselves - again).

Doog_de_Jour

EwaDawg said:

BleachedAnusDawg said:

There were two championship caliber teams in the tournament. Gonzaga and Baylor. Baylor kicked their ass, though. You could play a 7 game series between those two and Baylor wins in 5 or 6. Probably 5. The what-if scenario being kicked around today is that if Baylor didn't have to shut down mid-season due to COVID that they probably go undefeated. The other one I heard is that if the December Gonzaga-Baylor game didn't get cancelled, Gonzaga would've had a chance to experience Baylor's speed and physicality and the game yesterday is a totally different story.

I will credit Gonzaga for scheduling as many top programs OOC as they can, and for winning 75%+ of those games.

Gonzaga deserves a bunch of credit but not as much as most of their fans claim.

They are nearly always a lock for the dance because they play in a weak conference. That can not be disputed.

That they may be deserving of a tournament bid also MUST be acknowledged. Sure, more recently than previously (for the fucktards).

That they have become better over these 20 plus years of (sometimes) undeserved hype is a given. Thus being due to being able to recruit better because of early undeserved hype is a very real probability.

They, have NEVER won the tourney despite 22 or 23 tries.

Its more than bad luck. Its talent, coaching, and the rigors of playing 6 fairly competitive games in just over two weeks against teams that mostly deserve to be there. Not winning it all, despite 20+ tries, put the zags squarely in the top 25 teams for that period. Kind of like Boise state. (Don't even try to compare qualifying for the 68 slot hoops tournament with the 4 team college football playoff. If 16 teams were eligible in football, we have no idea how Boise would have done. If you are not in the tourney, you can't play for the championship.)

Everyone is correct and everyone is wrong.

Their coach has a few years left to actually win one. It is not guaranteed that he will. I'll take the under. Even if I lose, I still have enjoyed the past 22 years.

And, I have the next year until the zags get a chance to prove themselves (or not prove themselves - again).

Co-sign on all of this, and I’m willing to bet this will get sadly underchinned.

After going through some of these threads and educating myself on why some people hate Gonzaga, I get it now.

But I won’t understand anybody trying to make the argument that they are a bad team.

PurpleThrobber

They had their shot. Unlike Hamilton, they threw it away.

Try again next year.

Doog_de_Jour

PurpleThrobber said:

They had their shot. Unlike Hamilton, they threw it away.

Try again next year.

I’m not going to argue with you about that. HCH is all about “winners win”, but I’m also not going take the fact that they lost in the championship game as a sign they were a complete fraud and didn’t belong.