Gonzaga seeing results of 'Zag time' heading into 2025 NCAA Tournament

The Bulldogs have learned to embrace close calls

Cole Forsman | Mar 19, 2025

Gonzaga men's basketball team. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

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Gonzaga Bulldogs

Shortly after a gritty West Coast Conference championship game in Las Vegas, Gonzaga men's basketball coach Mark Few reflected upon the unusual path his team took to secure its spot in the 2025 NCAA Tournament field.

Few, set to make his 25th consecutive appearance in the big dance this Thursday, has been at the helm of some uber-talented squads over the years that breezed through the regular season en route to earning a top seed in the postseason. The Bulldogs have been a No. 1 seed five times since 2013 and have made it nine straight appearances in the Sweet 16 round, which is tied for the longest such streak since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

There have been other years, conversely, where Few's squad had to fight and claw its way into the NCAA Tournament, like in 2016, when the Zags had to win three straight games at the WCC tournament to squeak in as a double-digit seed, only to make the Sweet 16 round anyway behind heroic efforts from Domantas Sabonis.

But in all of Few's 26 years as head coach of Gonzaga — plus his time as an assistant coach prior to that — he was hard-pressed to find a Zags team that's endured more unlucky moments than the 2024-25 team.

"We've had like an inordinate amount of one-possession games," Few said after the WCC championship. " I think we're like 350th in luck on KenPom. I mean we got more banked 3s on us than I could ever, ever remember in my entire career."

To Few's point, the Bulldogs are ranked No. 341 in the country in luck on KenPom, which for reference, puts them right in between San Diego and Arkansas Pine Bluff in that category. No other team in KenPom's top-60 has a lower luck score, and of the 68 teams going to the NCAA Tournament, none have been more unlucky than the Bulldogs have according to KenPom's database.

What goes into a team's "luck" rating? Well in the case of the Zags, a handful of close losses will certainly drag down that score. All eight defeats this season have come by an average margin of 5.1 points, including three by way of overtime. Five came against tournament teams (six if West Virginia hadn't been snubbed) and all but one of those took place away from home.

Also consider the number of players who recorded or tied their season or their career-high in points against the Bulldogs this season — from Oregon State's Michael Rataj, who scored 29 in the 97-89 overtime final from Corvallis, Oregon; to West Virginia's Javon Small, a senior guard who tallied a career-high 31 against the Bulldogs in the Bahamas, a game that perfectly encapsulates Gonzaga's luck this season. Perhaps the most bizarre outburst of them all was Santa Clara's Tyreree Bryan exploding for 35 points in Spokane despite averaging less than 10 points for his career.

From opposing players having big games to balls not bouncing their way in crunch time, the Bulldogs have experienced a variety of letdowns in crunch time this season. Rather than run from those stressful moments, though, they've learned to embrace them every day at the end of practice in the form of situational drills known as "Zag time."

"I think about a month ago we started to incorporate them into practice," senior forward Graham Ike said of Gonzaga's end-of-practice routine. "I saw the difference immediately — just how dialed in everybody was toward the end of practice, that was kind of the vocal point."

If the extra 30-45 minutes spent working on late-game situations has started to pay dividends, it's evidenced by Gonzaga's gritty 58-51 win over Saint Mary's in the WCC finale, when the Zags came out victorious despite shooting 1-for-15 from 3-point range and getting outrebounded by the Gaels, 43-28. Nevertheless, a big-time win for a Gonzaga team that had lost the previous meetings with Saint Mary's.

"Being in these situations toward the end of these close games, we're all yelling 'Zag time' in the huddle to just kind of bring us together," senior forward Ben Gregg said. "And know that we were built for this moment and practicing it for a while now, so just to remind everybody, you're ready for it, whatever happens."

The player on Gonzaga's roster more ready for whatever happens might just be Ryan Nembhard, who had a more calm and steady delivery for how he and his teammates handle late-game situations.

"It's just a good thing for us to lock in on at the end of the practices and stuff," Nembhard said. "But at the end of the day, I also feel like basketball is an interesting game. Sometimes the ball falls your way, sometimes it doesn't. So I definitely think we've been taking a little more concentration in that."

"Zag time" could apply when Gonzaga faces Georgia in their first-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament this Thursday, 1:35 p.m. PT from Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas.