Let’s start with a little trivia. Name the college basketball coach who has been around multiple decades and made trips to the NCAA tournament every season and owns a winning percentage of 82 percent to top all active college coaches?
Probably thinking of Duke Hall of Fame Coach Mike Krzyzewski. After all, pretty much all the early-season buzz has been about Coach K’s Blue Devils, whose off-the-charts freshmen class (RJ Barrett, Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish
Well, in just a few hours, Gonzaga, put an end to this silliness (good enough to beat the Cavaliers!) in the championship game of the Maui Classic. In a game that resembled a slug-it-out boxing match going all 15 rounds, the No. 3 Zags outlasted No. 1 ranked Duke, 89-87.
And, yes, Gonzaga Coach Mark Few is the one with the all-time best 82 percent winning percentage and NCAA tournament appearances in all of the 19 years he’s been with the Zags. For the record, Coach K has taken Duke to the NCAA’s in 35 of his 38 seasons and has a 79 percent winning percentage, Hall of Fame numbers for sure.
For all of you ACC snobs out there, this coaching comparison is not as crazy as you might think. Granted, Duke plays in a much better conference than the WCC, but before Few came along, Gonzaga was a small west coast school with no national name recognition. When Coach K took over at Duke in 1980, the school was just two years removed from a National Championship appearance.
In recent decades, the Zags have become one of the truly surprising stories in sports. To Few’s credit, Gonzaga ducks nobody in its non-conference schedule and a tough loss to North Carolina in the 2017 national championship game showed the Zags are a legitimate title contender. Gonzaga’s convincing win over Duke (led virtually the entire game) left little doubt they can contend again this season. After watching this early season classic, would anybody be surprised if these two teams meet again in the Final Four?
And consider this: the Zags were playing without their leading scorer from last season, forward Killian Tillie, who will return from ankle surgery in January. Playing alongside emerging star Rui Hachimura and San Jose State transfer, Brandon Clarke, the Zags could have the best front line in the country when Tillie returns.
Gonzaga is strong in the backcourt as well, with Josh Perkins and Zach Norvell coming off strong seasons and showing no fear vs. Duke. The two guards combined for 27 points and 5-of-9 shooting from the arc. Duke has outrageously good young talent but Gonzaga is experienced and loaded at every position.
Certainly no argument from the Blue Devils, who were torched by a multitude of Gonzaga players making shots from pretty much every spot on the floor. There was no ‘D’ in Duke, especially in the first half, when the Zags shot 66% from the field and 55% from the arc for a double-digit halftime lead. Hachimura showed the 32 NBA scouts flanking the sidelines that Duke’s two freshmen, Barrett and Williamson, weren’t the only lottery possibilities on the court, scoring 20 points and showcasing his game both inside and outside.
Coach Few got the better of Coach K at the outset, with some well-designed pick and rolls freeing up the Zags for open 3’s on throw-behind passes. It was a double-whammy for the Blue Devils, as the open 3-point looks forced Coach K to take center Marques Bolden out of the game early. Bolden had been an absolute beast in Duke’s 78-72 semifinal win over Auburn, with 11 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 blocked shots. But faced with the challenge of defending Gonzaga’s spacing, Bolden lacked the mobility to get out on Gonzaga’s big 3-point shooters. The Zags’ front-liners Hachimura, Clarke (17 points), Corey Kispert, Filip Petrusev (11 points off the bench) and Jeremy Jones all made 3-pointers, stretching Duke’s defense and opening up scoring opportunities inside.
With Bolden on the bench, Duke’s inexperience showed defensively around the basket. As always, Barrett (game-high 23 points but needing 25 shots to get there) and Williamson (22 points) were terrific offensively, but both missed assignments with their rotations on defense. For a while, it looked like Barrett and Williamson might have an easier time learning Hachimura’s native Japanese, than mastering their help-side D.
Then, with Duke trailing by as many as 16 in the second half, young talent took over. For most of the game, Gonzaga’s strong execution and just 11 turnovers, kept Duke from doing what it does best — running and dunking in transition. But midway through the second half, Duke extended its defensive pressure and Gonzaga struggled to get off good shots down the stretch (Williamson came out of nowhere to block a few of them). The Blue Devils were off and running, highlighted by electrifying dunks by Barrett and Williamson that surely went coast to coast on T
Leading 86-81 with 3:30 remaining, Gonzaga changed it up to slow Duke down. With the Blue Devils’ freshmen stars having already shown toughness in their comeback, Few decided to test their poise with a switch to zone. The youngsters responded brilliantly. Duke freshman point guard Tre Jones (who played great on his way to 17 points) hit two tough floaters in the lane and another chippie in the lane by Williamson tied it at 87 with 1:36 remaining.
With Gonzaga having missed its chance for the TKO earlier in the half, the stage was set for a wild finish. A post-up basket by Hachimura put the Zags ahead at 89-87 in what proved to be the final points with 1:30 remaining. In an imperfect ending to an otherwise well-played game, Duke missed its final seven shots (four were blocked) and the Zags missed four consecutive free throws, including two by Hachimura to give Duke one last chance with 10 seconds remaining. To nobody’s surprise, the Blue Devils cleared the way for Barrett up top. On his way to the basket, Hachimura rotated in Barrett’s path from the weak side, allowing Clarke to come over and make the most important block in Gonzaga history as time expired. Amidst all the excitement, nobody noticed that Barrett had missed a wide-open Javin DeLaurier (left unguarded on
Overtime Couch Talk:
For anybody interested in knowing more about Gonzaga’s amazing rise on the college basketball scene, go to Amazon and pick up a copy of Bud Withers’ Glory Hounds: How a Small Northwest School Reshaped College Basketball. And Itself. This is a good read.