The Gonzaga Bulldogs scored a No. 5 seed in the 2024 March Madness after an eventful Selection Sunday. Their first assignment for Gonzaga basketball in the NCAA Tournament will be the dangerous 12-seed McNeese State Cowboys. Although the Cowboys are not a traditional national powerhouse, it’s still a threat that the Bulldogs should not take lightly.
Gonzaga basketball head coach Mark Few will be the first to tell anyone about that. Few also revealed the strong message he gave to his team ahead of the first round of March Madness.
“I’ve told them this numerous times this year, everything’s still in front of you,” Few said (h/t Cole Forsman of Gonzaga Nation/Sports Illustrated).
“Everything that we’re all about and all we really, really want and care about is still in front of us. And the reason it’s still in front of us is because you guys did what I just described, you got it done,” the legendary Zags mentor added.
Gonzaga is entering the March Madness on the heels of a heartbreaking 69-60 loss to the Saint Mary’s Gaels in the West Coast Conference Tournament finals that interrupted the Bulldogs’ lengthy win streak. Prior to that loss to the Gaels, Gonzaga basketball won nine games in a row, including those at the expense of then-No. 17 Kentucky Wildcats on the road and versus then-No. 17 Saint Mary’s.
Gonzaga basketball has a potential Cinderella as first-round March Madness opponent
Gonzaga basketball has plenty of brutal experiences in the Big Dance, so if there’s a program that knows all about the dangers of looking beyond an upcoming opponent, it’s the Bulldogs, who were eliminated in the Elite Eight Round a year ago by eventual national champs, UConn Huskies.
The Cowboys carry the look of a potential giant killer in the NCAA Tournament. For one, they have an excellent head coach in former LSU Bulldogs mentor Will Wade, who steered the SEC program to three NCAA Tournament appearances in the five years he spent in Baton Rouge. In his first season with the Cowboys, McNeese State went from an 11-win program in 2023 to a 30-3 campaign in 2024.
Gonzaga basketball will have to be wary of McNeese State’s defense which is ranked 11th in the nation with just 64.0 points allowed per game. Gonzaga, however, has one of the best offenses in the NCAA, as it is ninth on KenPom in terms of adjusted offensive efficiency.
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