With its 86-69 win over Loyola Marymount Saturday night, the Gonzaga men’s basketball team completed its first unbeaten regular season – becoming the first Division I team to compete unbeaten in the conference tournament since Kentucky in 2015.
While this season was fraught with uncertainty due to COVID-19 – namely, abbreviated non-conference schedules, multi-week breaks for teams across the country, and more than 1,500 games postponed or canceled – Gonzaga’s dominance and 24-0 record stand out.
While many teams’ non-conference schedules were scaled back due to COVID-19 factors, the Zags chased one of the country’s toughest early seasons – and won a lot. They then hit-No. 6 Kansas with double digits in their season opener and then-no. 11 West Virginia a week later.
After a positive COVID-19 test on December 5 wiped out a potential Game of the Year between top teams Gonzaga and Baylor, the Bulldogs returned from a COVID-19 hiatus to beat the then number. 3 Iowa with 11.
As a replacement for Baylor, the Zags faced – and trampled – then – No. 16 Virginia 98-75, while the Cavaliers gave up their most points in more than a decade.
In the process, Gonzaga became the first team in the history of Division I men’s basketball to beat four AP top-20 teams in the first seven games of the season.
It was the Bulldogs’ fourth straight two-figure victory as the best team in the AP poll. Today, that streak has racked up 21 consecutive double-digit wins, past the mark of the 1971-72 John Wooden-coached and Bill Walton-led UCLA squad who headed for a national championship 30-0.
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Jalen Suggs hands the ball to Anton Watson in the transition for a dunk vs. Loyola Marymount.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only three teams (regardless of rank) have won 21 games in a row with double digits in the last 60 seasons: 2020-21 Gonzaga, 2018-19 Gonzaga and 2016-17 Gonzaga. The previous two iterations of Bulldogs teams failed to extend the streak to 22.
The typical knockout against Gonzaga is that it plays in the West Coast Conference, which cannot be compared to a major conference. KenPom.com’s adjusted efficiency margin, which measures how much better a team is than the average Division I team based on 100 assets, rated the WCC as the ninth best conference in DI this year – between the Atlantic 10 and the Missouri Valley.
But the adjusted efficiency margin also says that Gonzaga is in the top echelons regardless of conference. Since KenPom started the benchmark in 2002, only two teams have completed a season with an adjusted efficiency margin of 35 or higher. Gonzaga is on track to finish third, behind the 2014-2015 Kentucky team that lost in the Final Four:
Best adjusted efficiency margin since 2002
According to KenPom.com
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2014-15 Kentucky +36.9
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2020-21 Gonzaga * +36.6 (until February 27)
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2007-08 Kansas +35.2
How did the Zags deal with it? Gonzaga has torn opponents in the paint all season, averaging 51.2 PPG, the highest average of the past 15 seasons. There have been only five games this season in which a team scored 70 points against a Division I opponent; Gonzaga is responsible for three of the five.
And the paint dominance wasn’t just against the World Council of Churches or weak non-conference enemies. In Gonzaga’s five games against major conference teams – Kansas, Auburn, West Virginia, Iowa and Virginia – the Zags scored 264 in paint points for 52.8 per game, well over their season average. Those 264 points in paint are the highest of any team in a five-game period versus opposition at major conferences over the past 15 seasons. Even against the toughest competition, this team has been a paint magician.
As a result, the Bulldogs shoot 64.4% from 2-point range, at pace for the highest figure in the past 25 seasons, and shoot 55.3% from the field, at pace to be the highest since 1988-89 Michigan’s national champion shot 56.6%.
However, don’t confuse this with a struggling team that can only score on the edge in the half lane. Gonzaga’s average possession lasts just 14.2 seconds, the third shortest in the country, and the team scores nearly 23 points per game during the transition, including in the top five nationally.
What does this style of play mean for March? Before Gonzaga, North Carolina was the last team to lead Division I in KenPom’s custom attack efficiency while playing at a top-10 pace. That team, led by Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansbrough, won a championship.
Gonzaga’s combination of efficiency and speed yields 92.9 PPG. The last national champion with an average of at least 90 PPG was Duke in 2000-01. In total, four teams have led Division I in points per game and won the NCAA tournament in the same season:
Led DI in PPG and won national title
Gonzaga is leading DI in PPG this season
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2018 Villanova
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2005 UNC
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1963 Loyola-Chicago
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1960 State of Ohio
Like every year’s story, Mark Few’s team will be characterized by his ability to take a deep run in March – and, if all goes to plan, into April.