Sporting News

Gonzaga’s best-ever shot to reach Final Four shot down way too early

SALT LAKE CITY—Fifteen minutes after his top-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs watched their season end in a stunning barrage of 3-pointers from Wichita State, Kevin Pangos was the center of attention in his locker room.

Teammates Kelly Olynyk, Elias Harris and Mike Hart were off dealing with the bright-lights interview session, so all five television cameras and the smattering of writers gathered around Gonzaga’s point guard, asking what went wrong for a team with Final Four talent.

Kelly Olynyk and Gonzaga wanted their season to end in Atlanta, but the Bulldogs fell well short of that goal. (AP Photo)

As Pangos answered each question, with the pain in his eyes as much as his words, reserve forward Sam Dower sat directly to his left, picking at a callous on his left hand. To his left, backcourt mate Gary Bell Jr. leaned back against the divider between lockers, staring into nothing with a blank expression on his face. And to his left, reserve guard Kyle Dranginis leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees, his hands hiding whatever emotions he was feeling in the moment.

The table with the postgame food—single-serving Freschetta pizzas in green boxes, clear salad containers stuffed to capacity with lettuce, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and broccoli, and the tray of chocolate-chip cookies—sat undisturbed. Despite a room full of college athletes who had just expended every ounce of energy during the emotionally draining 76-70 loss, there were no appetites in this locker room.


There were no sounds, either, save for the soft give-and-take between Pangos and the television reporters. When they finally stepped away, Pangos blinked deeply to readjust his eyes, finally free of the camera lights demanding his attention from only a couple feet away.

“We have such a close-knit team, guys who love to be around each other and wanted to be around each other for two more weeks. To fall short ...” his voice trailed off. “Our expectations in this locker room were to just keep going. That’s what was kind of shocking about this; that’s still hard to take in. We actually lost.”

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Not this year. Gonzaga, the team that has become synonymous with consistent excellence, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time, in their 15th consecutive NCAA appearance. The Bulldogs entered the tournament as the No. 1-ranked team in both polls, with only two losses all season.

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Reaching new levels of success isn’t easy for a program as accomplished as Gonzaga’s, but this group was primed to bulldoze into the Final Four for the first time.

The Bullodgs had a dominating big man in 7-footer Kelly Olynyk, the single-most improved player in the country and a Sporting News first-team All-American. They had Pangos and Bell, an outstanding sophomore duo adept at handling the ball or knocking down shots from long range. They had Elias Harris, an exceptionally talented 6-8 senior forward who will collect a paycheck as a professional basketball player for a long time. And they had a seemingly endless supply of other players willing and able to fill roles when called upon by their outstanding coach, Mark Few.

“We wanted to take this team where it had never been before,” Pangos said softly. “We felt like we had something special. The Final Four would have been great, going to Atlanta, but it didn’t happen that way.”

By this point, Olynyk, Harris and Hart had returned from the bright-lights interview session. Hart meandered over to his locker near Pangos, and the two big guys sat next to each other, closer than any ski lift chair would have forced them to sit. The television cameras descended on Harris first, and as the senior talked, Olynyk patiently waited his turn.

Even sitting at his locker, the 7-footer still had a clear view of the locker room. He saw another reporter talking to Pangos, who was answering questions while trying to cut the tape wrapped around both ankles, and another reporter talking with Bell, but the few gathered around Hart were partially obscured from Olynyk’s line of sight.

Dower and a couple other teammates were packing their suitcases and checking to make sure they didn’t leave anything in their lockers. Olynyk had a clear view of the food table, which remained untouched, with pizzas getting cold, salads getting warm and cookies staying lined up in order under an unopened lid.

When the cameras shifted from Harris to Olynyk, the big man was asked about his thoughts on the loss and what his plans are for next year. The redshirt junior is a sure-fire lottery pick when he decides to leave Gonzaga, but he reiterated, kindly but firmly, that his NBA decision was the furthest thing from his mind. When the camera lights left, Olynyk tried to avoid putting any special emphasis on his team being the first No. 1 seed to lose.

“Everyone wants to get to the Final Four,” he said. “All 68 teams that come into the tournament want to get to the Final Four. All the teams that lose are disappointed that they didn’t win.”

But all the other teams aren’t Gonzaga.

At Gonzaga, winning is like breathing. It’s just what the Bulldogs do. This team won 32 games, the most in Few’s 14 years at the school, but every single team has won at least 23 under Few. This team won both the West Coast Conference regular-season and tournament titles; the Zags have won one or the other in 13 of Few’s 14 years.

This team expected to go back to Spokane, Wash., with hardware in hand, after detouring through Los Angeles and Atlanta for a few memorable victories. This team has been so good all season in late-game situations, but on Saturday night, Wichita State drilled seven consecutive 3-pointers down the stretch to complete an improbable comeback.

This wasn’t supposed to happen, not this way.

On the other side of the arena, the Wichita State players were dancing and laughing and joking and checking out Twitter—“Can you believe Ron Baker is trending nationwide?” one of the reserves shouted out over the dull roar that was the Shockers locker room. In the Gonzaga locker room, a couple of the bench players threw on their jackets, zipped up their suitcases and finally trudged over to grab one of the single-serving pizzas.

Their body language echoed Pangos’ sobering realization.

“We actually lost.”

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