Few college basketball fans remember when little was known about Gonzaga, a small school in Spokane, Wash.
Long before the Zags became a perennial top 25 team or even a perennial NCAA tournament participant, the men’s basketball program at the Jesuit university was known for producing one future basketball Hall of Famer, John Stockton, and a crooner named Bing Crosby.
The introduction as a burgeoning basketball power came in 1995, when Gonzaga played in its first NCAA tournament.
The opponent was Maryland, which a year earlier had reintroduced itself by making the tournament for the first time under Gary Williams and reaching the Sweet 16, where it lost to Michigan’s Fab Five.