Plenty of newspaper ink will be spilled over the fact that Gonzaga, as a seventh seed, will play No. 10 Davidson in the Wildcats’ backyard in an NCAA tournament opener Friday, and rightfully so.
But there’s another reason for Gonzaga to be concerned about the 9:25 a.m. date with the Southern Conference champions at the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C.: The Wildcats haven’t lost since, oh, before Christmas.
Davidson (26-6) has the longest winning streak in the nation at 22. Of those 22 wins, 18 were by double figures. Along the way, the Wildcats stepped out of conference to topple Winthrop, a 13 seed that will open against Washington State, 60-47 in a BracketBusters game, just the Eagles’ third home loss in 59 games.
“That’s an amazing feat,” Gonzaga senior forward Abdullahi Kuso said of the Wildcats’ winning streak. “But you know what, the NCAA tournament is a whole new ballgame. Just like they don’t care about us being WCC (regular-season) champions, we’re just going in there to play a basketball game.”
Gonzaga (25-7) landed an NCAA berth for the 10th consecutive season. The Bulldogs gathered at the Herak Room in the McCarthey Athletic Center on Sunday to find out their first-round assignment.
“In high school, you play the game and usually know before the game is over if you’re going to state or not,” freshman guard Steven Gray said. “But not winning the WCC tournament and waiting — it wasn’t as intense as for some schools — but you’re waiting to see where you’re going to participate in one of the best sporting events there is.
“It’s a lot of excitement and all the hard work, you see it paying off at that moment when your name comes up on the screen. For me, it was just more I can start breathing now, because you’re holding your breath waiting for it.”
Some of the older Bulldogs have some experience with lengthy winning streaks. Gonzaga won 20 straight, including a pair of NCAA tournament wins in the 2005-06 season, before falling to UCLA 73-71 in Oakland. David Pendergraft, Jeremy Pargo and Josh Heytvelt were members of that team.
“You’re on a roll,” head coach Mark Few recalled of the Bulldogs’ winning streak, “and you’re playing confident basketball. It’s no different than a golfer when he’s on his game. He’s striping every shot, hitting every green and you think you can hit every fairway. That’s what they’re on right now.
“We’re going to have to be able to create some adversity for them to maybe knock them off their confidence.”
Pargo, a freshman on that 29-4 Bulldogs team, said mind-set played a key role.
“It wasn’t in my head that we won 20 in a row,” he said. “It was all about the next game coming up. This (tournament) is a fresh start for everybody. We lost our last game and we’re going to come out and prove we’re better than what we did in our last game.”
The Gonzaga-Davidson winner will face the winner of the No. 2 Georgetown/No. 15 Maryland-Baltimore County game in the Midwest Region. Kansas, champions of the Big 12 Tournament, is the region’s top seed.
The WCC celebrated a landmark day as three teams — San Diego, Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s — were selected to the NCAA field for the first time.
“There were some anxious moments, but it’s great for the top end of the conference to see those names go up,” Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth said. “Of the six non-BCS at-large berths, we got two and that’s pretty impressive.”
Gonzaga dropped from No. 22 out of the latest ESPN/USA Today rankings following its loss to San Diego in the WCC tournament championship. The Wildcats are ranked 23rd in the poll.
Davidson relies on starting guards Stephen Curry and Jason Richards. Curry averages 25.1 points per game, fifth nationally. His 139 3-pointers are tied with UAB’s Robert Vaden for first in the nation. Jason Richards averages eight assists per game, best in the country.
Curry was roommates with Gonzaga’s Matt Bouldin on the U.S. team that played in the U-19 world championships last summer.
The Wildcats played a rugged non-conference schedule that included North Carolina, Duke and UCLA. Davidson led North Carolina for most of the second half before losing 72-68. The Wildcats had an 18-point lead against UCLA, but the Bruins rallied for a 75-63 win in Anaheim.
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