By Jeff Faraudo
#WCChoops columnist | ARCHIVES
Matt Santangelo was there when this all began, a junior point guard on the 1998-99 Gonzaga team that introduced itself to the college basketball world by advancing to within one game of the Final Four.
Twenty-two years later, Santangelo, 43, has lost none of his passion for the Zags. “I’m a total fan,” he says.
Santangelo spent seven seasons through the team’s run to the 2017 national championship game as its radio analyst. For the past seven years he has been executive director for Spokane’s HoopFest, which bills itself as the world’s largest outdoor 3-on-3 tournament.
As the Gonzaga program matured from Cinderella curiosity to consistent national contender — 21 consecutive NCAA tournament bids, including 10 trips to the Sweet 16 or beyond — Santangelo held the same conversation annually with friends and co-workers about where the latest edition of the Zags ranks among the program’s best.
“This is the year, this is the greatest team ever,” they’d tell each other.
“Every year, it's wash, rinse and repeat,” Santangelo says. “This year is not any different.”
Except for this: “I do think this is the greatest team ever.”
Dan Dickau, backcourt star of the 2002 team that went 29-4, is willing to entertain that possibility. “That’s a question everybody’s going to be talking about the next six weeks,” he says.
Certainly this team’s legacy has yet to be written. But at 19-0 and threatening to become the nation’s first team since 2015 to complete an unbeaten regular season, these Zags are charting new territory.
“This Gonzaga team, they’ve answered all challenges since being preseason No. 1, which is pretty hard to do. They haven’t had any slip-ups,” Santangelo notes.
Dickau, who works as a TV analyst for a variety of outlets and has covered eight Gonzaga games this season, credits coach
Mark Few for making this a normal season against the abnormal backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Zags arranged high-end, non-conference matchups against Kansas, West Virginia, Iowa and Virginia — and won them all.
Both Santangelo and Dickau point to one aspect that separates this Gonzaga team from others.
“They are so stinking good offensively,” says Dickau, pointing to the fact that Gonzaga can attack opponents in a variety of ways, going to
Drew Timme in the post,
Corey Kispert on the perimeter, or in transition, led by freshman point guard
Jalen Suggs, a potential No 1 NBA draft pick.
That trio this week made the cut for the Naismith Award midseason All-America team — a 20-member squad featuring three Gonzaga players.
"They can play so many different ways,” Dickau continues. “There are stretches where they just play. They play free.”
“I love their style of play,” echoes Santangelo. “Jalen Suggs can do some really unique things one on one that he doesn’t even need to do because of how talented they. They share the ball, they play for each other.”
Suggs is providing 14.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.2 steals — as a freshman on the nation’s top-ranked team. “His composure if really impressive,” Santangelo says.
It’s easy to forget that Timme is still just a sophomore. He averages 18.9 points and 7.1 rebounds and is shooting nearly 63 percent from the field. At 6-foot-10, he has a green light from Few to secure a defensive rebound, turn and begin the fastbreak with the ball in his hands.
Santangelo is especially impressed by the career arc of Kispert, now a senior averaging 19.5 points and shooting 48 percent from the 3-point arc. He was on his way to being “kind of that stereotypical Zag,” Santangelo explains, noting his character, high basketball IQ and steady improvement.
“But it’s been just straight-up dominance this year,” Santangelo says. “I didn’t see this coming. I knew he was going to have a good senior year. I didn’t know he was going to be playing at the level he is now. In the biggest moments so far he’s gone above and beyond."
The numbers bear out how good the Zags are offensively. Their 92.7 points-per-game scoring average is nearly five points higher than any other team in the land. They are shooting just under 55 percent from the field, also best in the NCAA. On strictly 2-point attempts, that efficiency soars to better than 64 percent.
Dickau, 42, averaged 21 points as a senior on the way to earning consensus All-America honors in 2002, then played six seasons in the NBA. He has watched this Gonzaga team improve in every way.
“I thought my group was really good offensively, but we were nowhere near as good defensively as they are,” he says. “Defensively, they’ve gotten better. That’s the kind of mix you need to win the national title.”
In fact, Ken Pomeroy’s ratings put Gonzaga at No. 2 nationally in offensive efficiency and No. 5 defensively. Fellow unbeaten Baylor is the only other team ranked in the top-5 in both, checking in at No. 3 at both ends.
Asked what he views as a potential stumbling block, Dickau says front court depth is his biggest concern. “What happens if Timme gets in early foul trouble?” he says. Santangelo points to the lack of rim protection, with the Zags ranked just 188th nationally in blocked shots.
Dickau isn’t ready yet to crown these Zags as the program’s best-ever. "That ’17 team was special,” he says of the squad that was 37-2, losing the national championship game to North Carolina by six points.
But, he counters, “This team has stepped up to the challenge every single night.”
From his days as a player until now, Santangelo is perhaps most intrigued by how each Gonzaga team has raised the bar. He remembers the 2013 team, featuring
Kelly Olynyk, that became the program’s first to reach No. 1 in the AP Top-25.
“There was almost a feeling of guilt around that team, that we don’t really think we should be No. 1,” he recalls. “Then the next time it happened, it was `Screw that. Let’s go be big, bad No. 1.’ You can see those little landmarks that Gonzaga has passed along the way to where they are now.
“Every team has had their role — they were the greatest team at the time. Then the next one took it to the next step, Santangelo says. “It remains to be seen how far they go. But this team is really, really good.”
GONZAGA’S 10 GREATEST TEAMS
2020-21
Record: 19-0, 10-0 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: 1
Finish: To be determined
Top players: Corey Kispert, Drew Timme, Jalen Suggs, Joel Ayayi
2019-20
Record: 31-2, 15-1 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: 1
Finish: Won WCC regular-season and tournament titles. NCAA tournament canceled
Top players: Filip Petrusev, Killian Tillie, Corey Kispert
2018-19
Record: 33-4, 16-0 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: 1
Finish: Won WCC regular-season title, lost WCC tournament championship game. Lost in NCAA regional final
Top players: Rui Hachimura, Brandon Clark, Zach Norvell, Josh Perkins
2016-17
Record: 37-2, 17-1 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: 1
Finish: Won WCC regular season and tournament titles. Lost to North Carolina in national championship game
Top players: Nigel Williams-Goss, Przemek Karnowski, Jordan Mathews, Jonathan Williams, Zach Collins, Josh Perkins
2014-15
Record: 35-3, 17-1 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: 2
Finish: Won WCC regular season and tournament titles. Lost to Duke in NCAA regional final
Top players: Kyle Wiltjer, Kevin Pangos, Przemek Karnowski, Domantas Sabonis
2012-13
Record: 32-3, 16-0 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: 1
Finish: Won WCC regular season and tournament titles. Lost in NCAA third round
Top players: Kelly Olynyk, Elias Harris, Kevin Pangos, Gary Bell
2005-06
Record: 29-4, 14-0 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: 4
Finish: Won WCC regular season and tournament titles. Lost in NCAA regional semifinal
Top players: Adam Morrison, J.P. Batista, Derek Raivio
2003-04
Record: 28-3, 14-0 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: 3
Finish: Won WCC regular season and tournament titles. Lost in NCAA second round
Top players: Ronny Turiaf, Blake Stepp, Cory Violette, Adam Morrison
2001-02
Record: 29-4, 13-1 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: 6
Finish: Tied for 1st in WCC regular season and won WCC tournament. Lost in NCAA first round
Top players: Dan Dickau, Zach Gourde, Cory Violette, Blake Stepp
1998-99
Record: 28-7, 12-2 WCC
Highest AP Top-25 ranking: Not ranked
Finish: Won WCC regular season and tournament titles. Lost in NCAA regional final
Top players: Richie Frahm, Matt Santangelo, Jeremy Eaton, Casey Calvary, Quentin Hall