INDIANAPOLIS – Gonzaga played a role and put on a show Tuesday night. He went to 30-0 in the season and reached the Final Four with an 85:66 win over previously rolling USC.
Drew Timme had 23 points and five rebounds and after a dunk pretended to paint his handlebar mustache for the few thousand fans in the stands. The top-manned and top-ranked Bulldogs will be the third team to bring an unbeaten record to the Final Four since the bracket was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
The last team to go undefeated was Indiana in 1976. On Saturday in the national semifinals, the Bulldogs face the winner of what will later become an elite eight matchup between UCLA and Michigan.
Timme did what he wanted against the nation’s fourth-placed defense – a team that won their first three tournament games averaging 21 points – like pretty much everyone else in white uniforms.
Jared Suggs finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. All-American Corey Kispert had 18 points and eight boards in one “off” night – only 6 for 19 off the floor. Gonzaga shot only 44% in the second half and “only” 50% for the game. That was five below its leading national average, but it didn’t matter.
Blowouts should be boring, but this felt like a globetrotters game at times, filled with fancy bounce passes through traffic, reverse layups, a nosedive from Joel Ayayi (nine points), and the occasional post-basket flex from the 6- Foot-10 Timme.
Gonzaga led the USC in sixth place after two minutes with 7: 0, 25: 8 after 8:30 and 36:15 after Kispert Timme had taken a skilful court to easily lay 6: 3 in the half .
Gonzaga walked into the locker room at 7:00 p.m. at halftime and had a big fat zero in the sales column – the gold standard for a team that thrives on offensive efficiency.
The last 20 minutes were an extended garbage time – plenty of time for Timme to grow his handlebar mustache and the Bulldogs to fill up the stats.
You’re a statistician’s dream – a team that finished in 1st place (91.8), won 29 of their 30 games in double digits, and that wouldn’t be slowed down by USC (25-8) and the brothers Mobley – Isaiah and Evan, who roam the middle for one of the largest teams in the country (average size 6-7).
Both got theirs – Isaiah with 19 points and seven rebounds and Evan with 17 and five – but the most impressive numbers belonged to the Zags.
The game was interrupted by a frightening moment early when officer Bert Smith collapsed on the floor and had to be removed in the wheelchair. In the second half, CBS announced that Smith was fine and resting in the arena.
He was replaced by Tony Henderson, but there was no heavy lifting for the backup.
USC got no closer than 16 in the second half, and while their intensity waned at times, there was no doubt the Zags would return to the Final Four for the first time since 2017.
– The Associated Press
