Worst Seat In The House: One of many

If you are anything like me, you watched the Gonzaga Bulldogs lose to the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday. Games like these are harsh realities of the win and go on and lose and go home tournament format. I’ve said this before and it bears repeating, “Losing hurts worse than winning feels good!”

After a loss you can hear teams’ fans or coaches say, ‘We would have won if we only hit our free throws or gotten that last rebound or made that layin.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say, “You know had we made our free throws we could have easily won by 10.” When you win it doesn’t matter when you lose everything matters!

The Bulldogs have been so close to winning it all and have been greatly respected with how they have traversed through the NCAA tournament field of 68 teams. They are the only team in the last five years to move on to the sweet sixteen. They have advanced to the elite eight in three of the last five years and made it to the championship game once.

People have criticized the Bulldogs as a team that plays in a weak conference but the above stats prove that they are an elite program. If anything playing in the WCC hurts them during the tournament not having had the opportunity to play teams that are very athletic and play hardnose defense like the Red Raiders did. That is a reality.

I get a chance to see a lot of college basketball teams from around the country during the season on my trusty TV. I wish I could actually tell you how many basketball analysts (former coaches and/or players) stated that a certain team was a Final Four caliber team, in other words loaded with talent. There had to be close to a dozen teams and only two of them actually made it. Auburn and Texas Tech were teams that were on the rise during the season and Virginia had to get over the embarrassment of being the first number one seed to lose to a 16 seed. So they had a lot of question marks.

Teams like Duke and Kentucky have loaded up with top notch talented players that will most likely be playing in the NBA next year. Highly talented one and done players don’t always fit into a team concept in one year. But some coaches will go after those five star recruits year in and year out but Kentucky has only won it all once doing that.

Say what you want about Gonzaga but they get high level kids and then develop them into excellent basketball players. Sometimes they do such a great job that a transfer only needs a year to get the attention of NBA scouts. But the kids have also had the opportunity to play for great coaches within in a family atmosphere. That is why so many GU players come back to watch the Zags either at home or on the road and know they owe their success to the Bulldog program starting with head coach Mark Few.

I know that a few players have transferred over the years but mostly because of playing time. You don’t hear about players doing a graduate transfer from Gonzaga in order to have the opportunity to play at a higher level or better chance to play in the tournament.

As fans it hurts to see this team lose out because we have gotten to know them the last year or four and we have seen their growth. We’ve come to appreciate them waving to the fans that follow them after a big win in the Kennel or on the road. It is hard to see young men put their heart and soul into this crazy game and then cry like they have just lost a loved one in a tragic accident. But that is the nature of this tournament.

There is no best two out of three or three out of five or four out of seven tournament like the pros play. There are no big payouts for the team players just a chance to get an education paid for with a scholarship.

Enjoy the Final Four this Saturday and the championship game on Monday. Just realize these teams are merely survivors that were victorious against some big time competition. Each team is one of many that could have reached that goal of playing for the NCAA championship trophy. 64 others are wondering what might have been.