The Sweet 16 is set and for the most part, it's not loaded with Cinderellas (unless you count 11-time national champion UCLA).
Nope, there are no real Cinderellas this year. Twenty years ago, Gonzaga and Wichita State would require glass slippers. Media would surround their campuses before this weekend as if Norman Dale and the Hickory Huskers showed up in Spokane or Wichita.
The sheer thought of putting a glass slipper on Mark Few's bunch is laughable now. It's getting that way very, very quickly for Gregg Marshall's Shockers, as well.
The fact that their arrival in the Sweet 16 created few ripples means simply, as programs, they've arrived. Sure, Butler had two amazing runs to the NCAA title game. Those runs put Butler in the Big East, which basketball-wise no longer makes the Bulldogs a mid-major program. VCU and George Mason had real Cinderella runs, but Gonazga has had real lasting power and Wichita State doesn't appear to be slacking off anytime soon.
Gonzaga has been the gold standard of mid-major power for the last two decades. Ever since Dan Monson's 1998 squad danced their way into the Elite Eight, Gonzaga has been a solid, relevant program; a major in a mid-major's resume. West Coast Conference? No biggie. UNLV won big in the old Big West. When you're good; you're good. No question about it.
And that's the miracle of Gonzaga. It hasn't mattered that their arena seats just 6,000, their conference isn't a power league or they've played fewer and fewer ranked teams each year. The Bulldogs justly earned a two seed and came out swinging from the gate, having little trouble dispatching of North Dakota State and simply punishing Iowa to reach the second weekend. They could go much, much further though. For one, Kevin Pangos is one of the best guards in America and is lethal from behind the arc. Second, Gonzaga is one of the few teams that can match Kentucky's interior size, with 6-10 Domantas Sabonas, 7-1 Polish giant Przemek Karnowski and (ironically) 6-10 Kentucky transfer and leading scorer Kyle Wiltjer. Teams will have to shoot extremely well from the perimeter and force Gonzaga's front-court into foul trouble to take down the Bulldogs.
As for Wichita State, taking down Kansas was obviously some pretty sweet icing to cap off the first weekend of March Madness. It's nothing new, though, for the Shockers to take the court and perform high on the brightest stage. The past two seasons for Wichita State include a trip to the Final Four and a 35-1 season; an eyelash away from taking down the eventual national runner-up. Now, here's Wichita in the Sweet 16 again, proving that they're not a flash in the pan, as pundits remarked this was a down year for the Shockers (as if it's easy to go up from 35-1).
Similar to Gonzaga, the Shockers do it with guard play. Fred VanVleet has had a remarkable career in a Shocker uniform, and he's still a junior. VanVleet and senior guards Ron Baker and Tekele Cotton are the nucleus of this squad. They play angry. They have tremendous heart. And, amazingly, given all of their success, they have chips on their shoulders. To put it simply, the Shockers have stayed relevant simply because the team believes that in the eyes of so many, they still aren't.
Wichita doesn't blow people away statistically. They are small in size and could have a lot of trouble with Kentucky's interior presence, should they manage to get by ACC tournament champion Notre Dame. Let's face it, anyone that can take down Duke and North Carolina in back-to-back nights isn't going to be a pushover. But Wichita could do it; simply because no team resembles the attitude of their coach as much as the Shockers do. Gregg Marshall didn't come from an extensive coaching tree; he had to scrap, claw and fight his way up to being a head coach and then, after consistently winning at Winthrop, found his home in Wichita. His team resembles him; a group of scrappy kids who were passed over by the power conference schools, only to fight their way into the national spotlight and prove their worth time and time again. Baker dreamed of playing for Kansas. Last Sunday, he proved he was as good, if not better, than the guards wearing the jersey he once coveted.
Twenty years ago, Gonzaga had won exactly two conference championships. Wichita State hadn't been in the NCAA tournament for seven straight years. Neither school was anything but a struggling mid-major program. Though Gonzaga's earned it for years now, while Wichita made their emphatic statement last Sunday, they both share the same title as we head into the regional semifinals.
Majors.
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