How #1 Gonzaga Became A National Powerhouse
The Lead
Wondery
3.9 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2020
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The men’s college basketball season tips off tonight, and the top ranked team, which opens on Thursday against Kansas, is the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The Athletic’s Dana O’Neil recently spent time with the team and head coach Mark Few (who has been at the helm for two decades), and she joins us to explain how the small school in Spokane, Washington grew into a perennial powerhouse, and why this Zags team is well positioned to win a national championship -- if the season makes it that far.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to the lead ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. |
| 0:12.0 | The men's college hoop season tips off tonight and the team at the top of the rankings once again is Gonzaga. |
| 0:18.0 | Welcome, played by Joelle Igyi, beautiful pass. |
| 0:23.0 | Today, the athletics Dana O'Neill on how the tiny school in Spokane, Washington has become a perennial powerhouse without wavering in its approach. |
| 0:33.0 | They have stayed true to who they are. They also understand that as great as their school is, it's still unique. |
| 0:39.0 | It's still a small Jesuit school in a remote part of the country in a smaller league. It is not necessarily going to be for everybody. |
| 0:51.0 | From wondering on the athletic, I'm Kavita Davidson. |
| 0:54.0 | And I'm Anders Kelto. It's Wednesday, November 25th, and this is the lead. |
| 1:01.0 | It felt like something great was happening. |
| 1:04.0 | There was just something about the emotion and the heart of the game. |
| 1:09.0 | The failures of the past don't matter because we've got this now. |
| 1:15.0 | This isn't a story where the interview with the athlete will hold. It stays with you. |
| 1:22.0 | So Dana, college basketball fans today know Gonzaga as this national powerhouse. And they're always in the NCAA tournament. |
| 1:32.0 | They're currently the number one ranked team in preseason. But that hasn't always been the case. |
| 1:38.0 | Can you take us back to the time before Gonzaga basketball became the program we knew today? |
| 1:43.0 | Right. If you go way way back and that's not really that far back, it's like, you know, 1998. |
| 1:48.0 | The basketball program was not terrible, but the university was really in dire straits. |
| 1:53.0 | You know, enrollment was just plummeting for a thousand reasons. It's a small Jesuit school in Spokane. |
| 1:58.0 | I mean, just it wasn't doing well. It was down the freshman enrollment was down to 500, which is pretty puny. |
| 2:05.0 | And the school was really concerned financially. And lo and behold, little Gonzaga, the school that nobody ever heard of, goes to the elite eight. |
| 2:13.0 | Hall the runner, loose ball. It's gone. With four, four, four to go. Shannon. |
| 2:22.0 | A lot of foul. Shannon from the corner. And it's over. Gonzaga, the slipers still fits. |
... |
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