Gonzaga is going to its 18th straight NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Going into conference tournament week, the Gonzaga Bulldogs were no lock to extend their string of consecutive NCAA tourney berths to 18 years. To maintain the streak, the Zags probably needed to run the West Coast Conference tournament table, since an at-large bid was unlikely with seven losses on their résumé. The automatic-bid route was how Gonzaga qualified for 13 of the previous 17 NCAA tournaments, but it wasn’t even the conference favorite this year.