ORLANDO - It was once deemed unthinkable for a school from a mid-major conference to be mentioned in the same breath as traditional national powers in Division I men’s college basketball. A deep run in the NCAA Tournament by schools with lower annual enrollment and bigger spending budgets was merely just a “Cinderella” story. Nobody truly felt they can sustain that level of success year in and year out.
That narrative has dramatically changed in recent years, thanks to the Gonzaga Bulldogs and their string of incredible success over the last two decades. Led by Mark Few, the school’s men’s basketball head coach since 1999, Gonzaga has defied the odds and transformed into one of the premier college basketball schools in the nation.