This year I've listened to college basketball podcasts on my way to work. I've studied statistics, both classic and new, in advance of and after games. I've paid money for subscriptions to ESPN, Kenpom, Basketball State and The Mid Majority. I woke up at 5 AM to watch the Australian Boomers play in the Olympics. I watched Summer League games, even though I don't watch the NBA, to keep up with former players. I've posted over 1,300 tweets and over 150 blog posts. This week I've watched the thrilling games from the Big 10 and battles between tough, urban teams from the Big East.
That's not why I love college basketball. All of that which I've done this year is a result of the reason why I love college basketball.
As exciting as a top ten match up of powerhouse programs from the big conferences can be, and pretty much always ends up being. As high of a level of basketball is played by these hyper-talented teams. That's not why I love college basketball. I love college basketball as much for the stories, the culture that it can create, the history and the impact on the current that it has as I love it for the basketball itself.
#8 Gonzaga at #13 Butler, but more specifically the two teams involved, is why I love college basketball.
It's these teams, and those like them, that have caused me to do everything I do now on a daily basis. It's not because Gonzaga is a top ten team this year. It's because Gonzaga, and Butler, are true college basketball programs. They're not pipelines to the next level. They're not money over everything else cultures. They're a department within their college. They're a part of a college that is intertwined with the culture of their community. Not intertwined like the power conference schools that create 10,000 graduates on a yearly basis and overwhelm their cities or states with alumni. They've become intertwined with the community not because they're wildly successful, though that has helped, but because both the program and the community have made it so.
It's these teams, and those like them, that have caused me to do everything I do now on a daily basis. It's not because Gonzaga is a top ten team this year. It's because Gonzaga, and Butler, are true college basketball programs. They're not pipelines to the next level. They're not money over everything else cultures. They're a department within their college. They're a part of a college that is intertwined with the culture of their community. Not intertwined like the power conference schools that create 10,000 graduates on a yearly basis and overwhelm their cities or states with alumni. They've become intertwined with the community not because they're wildly successful, though that has helped, but because both the program and the community have made it so.
I can't speak as much for Butler, I'm a WCC blogger after all, but for Gonzaga I can. Having grown up in Spokane during the Zags rise from a program only known by NBA fans watching the starting lineup of a Utah Jazz game, to the Cinderella America loved, to the team that has become a staple in the top tier of college hoops.
In 1999 this little school from Spokane that nobody could pronounce captured the hearts of Americans with their Cinderella run to the Elite Eight. Every year there is a team that we fall in love with. George Mason in 2006, Butler and VCU a couple years back and Lehigh and Norfolk State last year. Gonzaga's run wasn't a serendipitous result of the right players at the right time with the right match up. The Zags, and Spokane, were set on doing more.
Dan Monson, like most coaches would, bolted to a big time job after his year of success. "Well, it's time to put Gunzahguh in the nice memory file, right?" No. The nobodies from the middle of nowhere made two consecutive Sweet 16s in the following years. Coach Few became one of the hottest young coaches in the game but he, like Butler's Brad Stevens has done recently, wanted to stay where the money was secondary to the environment. That's a story right there. Honestly, that's a story, people have written books (books, plural) on the Zags during those years. ESPN made an hour long documentary on the team in 2003.
The Zags have made history in the years since. They've put themselves at or near the top of national records, most notably with their 11 straight regular season conference championships. They've had all-Americans and a player of the year. They've achieved and sustained success like no small school had before.
The history and the story are nice. The impact on the current culture of the community is the greatest reason I love college basketball.
Coach Few has been at Gonzaga for over two decades. He's brought in players who are willing to fit into his system and put the team above their personal aspirations. Only two Zags have declared for the NBA draft before exhausting their NCAA eligibility (Adam Morrison and Austin Daye). It's not just that these players, in an age where there are teams that send multiple players to the NBA after just one season on campus, have stuck around as Zags for their full four years. It's that they, like Mark Few, Tommy Lloyd and others in the staff, have stuck around in Spokane. Dan Dickau had an NBA career but now he's back in Spokane as a color commentator. He works alongside another former Zag, Richard Fox. Matt Santangelo, who led the team in their Cinderella days, works the radio side of the broadcasts. Adam Morrison, Blake Stepp, Cory Violette, David Pendergraft, Zach Gourde and many, many others, have stuck around or returned to make Spokane their home.
The Zags in the NBA return frequently. From Ronny Turiaf returning to donate a new basketball court at a public park to Jeremy Pargo among others returning in the summers to work out and help develop the current crop of Zags.
This is not just a successful college basketball program that the Spokane community enjoys watching. It's in a symbiotic relationship with the city. The Gonzaga women's team now sells out home games like the men. The children of Spokane now attend basketball camps where they learn from some of the best college players/future NBA players. In June the whole city descends on Downtown Spokane for the largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament in the world, Hoopfest. The city loves the Zags and the Zags love the city.
A college is meant to be a part of the community in which it exists. To be a place of enrichment and betterment where people learn and grow, for the good of themselves and the world in which they live. Gonzaga Basketball has become more than just a basketball team or a part of the community. It's truly an embodiment of the words "college" and "basketball". It's why I've rambled on this page for over an hour and been brought to tears of joy on multiple occasions as I've written.
This is why I love college basketball.
#8 Gonzaga at #13 Butler
5:00 PM PST
ESPN
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