Gonzaga

From his halftime locker room speech to his bust-out second-half performance, the Gonzaga star kept the Bulldogs on track in the best game of the tourney so ...

At that moment, Timme looked like Timme, and Gonzaga looked like Gonzaga. And, if this is truly, finally the year the Bulldogs win the title that has eluded them, this was as good a look as any heading into the second week. It’s still a team with an elite point guard (Nembhard), a soon-to-be NBA lottery pick (Holmgren), Final Four experience from last season and, of course, Timme, their superstar who shows up to games looking like he’s headed for pick-up hoops at the local Y. Gonzaga remains the favorite as it heads into its seventh-straight Sweet 16, having survived a game, Few said, that was “as physical as we’ve been in all year.” But somehow, he managed to hold onto the ball, steady his body just enough and lay it in while not facing the basket or stable in his positioning. Timme turned to catch the pass and his momentum almost took him over the baseline. “They went to the championship level,” Hardaway said afterward. He wanted to go out “guns blazing,” and not the finger gun variety he prefers for in-game celebrations. He muscled into the paint, spun, twisted and scooped in a lay-up with his left hand. Flash forward to Saturday evening at the Moda Center. It was halftime, and Gonzaga wasn’t just losing to Memphis. The Tigers had been more physical, dominated on the boards, and held the Bulldogs without a field goal for the final 4:12 of the first half. The two cornerstones of Few’s latest contender—“This is their team,” he has said—even turned in the highlight of a night with no shortage of how-did-that-happen-type of plays. Drew, the oldest of Megan and Matt’s three children, was at a nearby hotel, lounging with his Gonzaga teammates, preparing to play again and continue their latest run at an ever-elusive title. He thumped his chest, as if to announce that he and Gonzaga had awoken. No. 1 Baylor was trailing against North Carolina. It would later lose to the Tar Heels, and when the Timmes saw this, they didn’t say much.