Gonzaga Defeats Pac-12 Opponents 4-1 in Thrilling Showcase
Mar. 16—If you had to guess which of Gonzaga's three losses was the genesis of a players-only meeting, the front-runners would likely be Nov. 26 against Michigan at the Players Era Festival and Feb.
4 at Portland. If it didn't happen after a 101-61 loss to the Wolverines that represented the largest margin of defeat under Mark Few, it surely came on the heels of an 87-80 "Quad 3" setback at Portland that knocked the Zags back in the national rankings and left little room for error in West Coast Conference play. Wrong on both fronts, actually.
A Gonzaga team with big goals in March came together on the first day of the month. Twenty-four hours earlier, the Zags had stumbled at Saint Mary's, losing 70-59 in the final game of the regular season. A variety of new problems surfaced for Gonzaga, which lost track of 3-point shooters and lost the momentum it had built to take a seven-point halftime lead.
Objectively, it was still the most excusable of Gonzaga's three regular-season losses. The Zags played without Braden Huff (dislocated kneecap) and Jalen Warley (thigh contusion) — arguably two of the team's three most important contributors. They'd already locked up a share of the WCC regular-season championship and No.
1 seed at the conference tournament. The Gaels were playing at home and put on the type of 3-point shooting display (16 of 33) that usually happens only once a year. It's unlikely the result impacted even Gonzaga's NCAA Tournament situation.
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