From Cinderella to the Goliath Standing in the way of a Sweet Sixteen Appearance for TCU: The Story of the Gonzaga Bulldogs

In 1999, the Gonzaga Bulldogs made a Cinderella-type run to the elite eight in the NCAA tournament. Since then, they’ve yet to miss the tournament and currently have the longest streak in the nation of reaching the sweet sixteen dating back to 2015.

I am in quite the dilemma for Sunday’s NCAA tournament games for TCU, I grew up and still am a die-hard Gonzaga Bulldog basketball fan.

It’s multigenerational on both sides of my family. My grandfather on my father’s side played for the Zags in the 1943-1944 season, and my grandmother is from Spokane. I also have a cousin on that side of the family who works in admissions for the school. On my mother’s side of the family, my cousin and her husband met while students at Gonzaga and my mother worked in Spokane for a local news station during their 1999 run to elite eight.

I am now a student at TCU and wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I have also had many heartbreaks with these Bulldogs.

AP Photo: Jeff Chiu

One of the first players I remember watching at Gonzaga was Adam Morrison. Unfortunately, his lasting memory for most college basketball fans was him crying on the floor of Oracle Arena after losing to UCLA in the 2006 sweet sixteen.

There were many times in March during my formative years where I was glued to my TV pulling for these Zags. Whether it was the 2012-2013 team lead by Kelly Olynyk who were a No. 1 seed in the tournament losing in the round of 32 to Wichita State, or my favorite moment watching sports being Jalen Suggs’s shot to beat the buzzer and UCLA in the 2021 final four, and everything in-between; I have many memories with these Zags.

A comparison I can make for my fandom of Gonzaga that most TCU fans can understand, I look at Mark Few in a very similar light as many Frog fans saw Gary Patterson up until a couple years ago. Few has done so much to turn Gonzaga from a little-known Jesuit school in Spokane, Washington to a national powerhouse in the college basketball landscape. He also took over his position around the same time Patterson got the job on the sideline of Amon G. Carter Stadium.

AP Photo: David Zalubowski

Sunday will be very difficult for me because this Frogs team has fought through so much this season just to get to this point.

If TCU can beat Gonzaga, it will be by far the biggest victory in Jamie Dixon’s time running the show.

AP Photo: Young Kwak

I can’t wait to watch, and I’m looking at it as a win-win for me either way it goes. However, I believe that the offensive attack led by Gonzaga's all-time leading scorer Drew Timme will be too much for the Frogs to handle and the Zags will continue their streak of seven-straight Sweet Sixteen appearances. 

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