Not to suggest it was ever in real doubt — because it wasn’t. But it should still be noted that Gonzaga officially punched its ticket to a 26th straight NCAA Tournament late Tuesday with a 58-51 win over Saint Mary’s in the championship game of the 2025 West Coast Conference Tournament.
Twenty-six straight is crazy.
Here’s a history lesson: In November 1998, I was a senior in college at the University of Memphis, which was hosting a tiny school from Washington named Gonzaga. Even as a lifelong college basketball fan, I don’t remember recognizing the Zags, perhaps because they played in a small conference on the West Coast and, at the time, had literally never won a game in the NCAA Tournament.
The Zags beat Memphis 88-73 that day. Roughly four months later, they beat Minnesota to win their first NCAA Tournament game in history, then beat Stanford to advance to their first Sweet 16 in history, then beat Florida to advance to their first Elite Eight in history.
Wild story.
Even wilder is the fact that the program has literally never missed the NCAA Tournament since. Again, the streak is 26 straight (and would be 27 if not for the 2020 NCAA Tournament being canceled). It’s difficult to make a proper comparison. But imagine if something like, I don’t know, Louisiana Tech in Conference USA, built its program to a place of respectability, then randomly made the Elite Eight — and then went on to make the next 25 straight NCAA Tournaments and appear in two national title games.
It sounds ridiculous, I know.
But that’s more or less what Gonzaga has done. As I often say, don’t take it for granted or get bored with it because it won’t last forever — and it’s possible we’ll never see anything like it again.
Saint Mary’s falling to Gonzaga resulted in the Gaels dropping to No. 21 in Wednesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Auburn remains No. 1 based on the strength of its body of work. For what it’s worth, Jerry Palm currently has Saint Mary’s projected as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament in his latest Bracketology.
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Top 25 And 1 rankings
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Saint Mary’s
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