How The Basketball Program Helped Gonzaga University Flourish
... wide to catch his coach. It was, considering time, place and event, a perfect metaphor for coach and university. Standing quite literally at the highest point of his coaching career, Few finally needed someone from Gonzaga to rescue him. For 19 years, he’d been doing the saving, his Bulldogs not only growing a basketball team from nothing but also helping to save a university in the process. “The school was in real trouble" was the assessment of longtime benefactor Jack Mc Cann in 1998. Gonzaga coach Mark Few was an assistant under former coach Dan Monson before being hired as head coach. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson. Asked to join the board of trustees that year, the Gonzaga graduate discovered his alma mater was falling apart, operating at a deficit for several years, the school’s credit rating plummeting, the endowment slipping and administrators forced to slash budgets simply to pay the bills. The small, Catholic, private and enrollment-reliant ...
Enrollment, Endowment Soar With Gonzaga Hoops Success
... In addition, “the success of the basketball program has played a significant role in our ability to raise funds,” Mc Culloh said. Some of the fundraising is evident in the university’s athletic buildings, such as the 6,000-seat Mc Carthey Athletic Center, which opened in 2004 with a major donation from brothers Phil and Tom Mc Carthey. “We saw a bit of a sleeping giant,” Phil Mc Carthey, a GU alum, said in a 2013 interview. “We saw a bit of an opportunity. We had the vision, not that the basketball team could be No. 1, but that it could be better.”. Other major gifts followed. Since 2004, benefactor gifts have allowed the university to launch 12 major building projects. In 2016, Gonzaga broke ground on the $24 million Volkar Center for Athletic Achievement, which is expected to open this fall. It was named after a Coeur d’Alene couple, Pat and Sandy Volkar, who moved to North ...
Gonzaga President Thayne Mcculloh Sees Bulldogs’ History, Success Tied To Community
... before them now for so long that it just feels really good to finally see them break through to the place where they are,” Mc Culloh said. Mc Culloh is in his seventh year as the president of the university, but he has watched the school and basketball program grow in Spokane for the nearly 30 years that he has been part of the GU staff. Since taking over his the role as president in 2010 , he’s traveled with the Zags and has had the opportunity to watch them in several postseason showings. But nothing has quite measured up to the scene on Saturday inside the University of Phoenix Stadium , when the Zags jumped and cheered after their win over South Carolina that sent them to the national championship game. “It’s a spectacle,” Mc Culloh said. “It’s absolutely nothing like anything else that happens prior to the Final Four.”. There’s one more item left to write in Gonzaga’s history books on Monday – the school’s first basketball national title. Gonzaga, the Zags, Few and the rest of the basketball coaching staff are well-deserving of ...
Gonzaga Fans Take In Boisterous National Championship At Jack And Dan’s
... at Gonzaga. “I feel like I owe it to Spokane to come back here,” said White, before taking a final swig from his tallboy of Hamm’s. The crowd, a mix of students and regulars all clad in Gonzaga blue, red and white, cheered the Zags to halftime, when the team held a 3-point lead. Scott Wilson, an Australia native on a roadtrip from Calgary to Portland, said he ducked in to the bar at 5 p.m. on the recommendation of a Google search. “I have Gonzaga in my bracket,” he said. “Zags by 6.”. But it was the Tarheels who pulled out the six-point victory, amid groans and more than one call for the heads of the referees. During a three-minute scoring drought early in the second half, fans chanted and pounded on the tables, trying to will the Zags back into the contest. It worked, as Karnowski finally scored and brought the crowd out of a stupor caused by North Carolina’s quick start to the second half. As ...
Adam Morrison's Attitude Is Exactly Why You Should Be Rooting For Gonzaga
... fan, you're about to become one. Morrison - the former Gonzaga University basketball star and, in 2012, almost a Portland Trail Blazers player - has penned a funny, sweet essay on The Players' Tribune. You probably remember Morrison as the exuberant, 'stache-wearing 2006 NCAA scoring champion who never quite made it in the NBA. But he's much more than that, he points out. That is, he's a Zags fan. When he was 10 years old, Morrison was a ball boy for the team that's playing for the NCAA title tonight. His favorite Zags player was John Rillie. John Who? Here's Morrison. He's an assistant at Boise State now, but back then he was the greatest basketball player I'd ever seen in person. I'll never forget walking into the gym and watching him warm up by shooting from all over the floor - and I really mean the entire floor. John would be casually sinking half-court shots like they were nothing, the same way Steph Curry does today. It blew my mind. It was the first time I got to see firsthand how much work you need to put in to be that good. Watching him, I would daydream about how one day, if I was lucky, maybe I could wear that Gonzaga uniform and play in the Kennel. That was ...
5 Fast Facts You Need To Know
... faith. Gonzaga offers numerous academic programs with a strong liberal arts focus. Students take classes in the humanities and sciences to help provide them with a dynamic education. Gonzaga is considered one of the best values for your money because it offers an exceptional education at an affordable price. It has high freshman retention and graduation rates and provides good earnings boost for its graduates. Click here to read more. 5. The School Has a 66.5 Percent Acceptance Rate. According to Gonzaga, the university has a 66.5 percent acceptance rate over the last five years. The average GPA of incoming students is 3.73. Students interested in applying to Gonzaga can read all the details about the school’s requirements and deadlines on the Gonzaga admissions site. You can apply online using the Common Application by listing Gonzaga as one of your schools. While Gonzaga is a Catholic university, students of all faiths are welcome. The school ...
Gonzaga Center Przemek Karnowski, ‘a 7-foot Mountain,’ A Big Reason For Bulldogs' Success
... put on the beard, he saw two young men in suits looking at him with more than a hint of skepticism in their expressions. Scott returned the looks. “Who am I?” he called out to them. “You don’t know, do you?”. Then he went back to contemplating the way Karnowski sometimes fills the television screen. “He’s huge. The pros have to give him a chance. I mean, that body.”. And let’s not forget his athletic skills. Jamie and Freddy Foster from Tucson were wearing University of Arizona shirts and made faces when Karnowski’s name was mentioned. “He hurt us,” said Freddy. “Us” being the Arizona basketball team. Karnowski helped defeat the Wildcats early in the season. Jamie, who said he is 6-foot-7, called the bearded one “a 7-foot mountain.”. Present day: Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski raises his arms after the Xavier bench received a technical foul during the first half of an NCAA Elite ...
5 Things To Know As Gonzaga Plays For National Championship Title
... "Getting back, and they're so fast and so good at it.". 5. Gonzaga and North Carolina both have quality players. Both teams have quality players coming off the bench and they are capable of being that championship game star. Gonzaga has 7-foot freshman Zach Collins, who had 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks in the Final Four win over South Carolina. Silas Melson is the first backcourt reserve and he had six points, four rebounds and three assists against the Gamecocks. He was 2 for 3 from 3-point range, where he shot 38.9 percent this season. Everything you need to know about tonight's title matchup: __link__/CPy Np BJOs G #National Championship #United We Zag __link__/XVb SLa Obs I. — Gonzaga Basketball (@Zag MBB) April 3, 2017. North Carolina has three reserves averaging at least 5.0 points per game in the tournament. That starts with Luke Maye, whose 10.4 average includes the winning jumper against Kentucky in the regional final. Tony Bradley, a ...
Fans Cheer All Across Spokane As Gonzaga University Advances To The Final Four
... electrifying,” he said. “It’s contagious.”. Longtime fan Ken Degenstein was also optimistic before the game began. “I think they’ll win,” he said. “They’ve got a good chance.”. The atmosphere inside the theater was indeed contagious, where people watched the game with hundreds of their closest friends. They groaned with every lost ball and missed shot and cheered with every stolen ball. A three-point shot was enough to make everyone cheer wildly. Across town at the 24 Taps sports bar, there wasn’t an empty seat inside or outside on the patio. Josh Brunner was feeling confident at half time. “We’re tired of hearing about people doubting them all the time,” he said. “They‘re playing really good. They need to keep it going and not let off the gas.”. People clapped and cheered throughout the second half. With five minutes left in the game and Gonzaga up by 20 points, some felt confident that the game was in the bag, while others cautioned against taking everything for granted. As the final seconds ticked away, the cheers were so loud they could be heard down the block. “This is huge for Spokane,” ...
Gonzaga's Storied History Goes Beyond Basketball
... football program itself – soon became a losing proposition. Gonzaga closed its football program for good in 1942 and the stadium was torn down in 1949. The most famous Gonzaga alumnus, Bing Crosby, did not graduate from the university. He graduated from Gonzaga High School in 1920. He also attended Gonzaga University and the School of Law, but left in 1924 without graduating from either. A statue of Bing – complete with pipe – stands near the Crosby Library, which was dedicated in 1957 and later became the Crosby Student Center. Other famous alumni: Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, civil rights attorney Carl Maxey, Speaker of the House Tom Foley, basketball star John Stockton, mountain climber Jim Wickwire and author Sherman Alexie (not all of them were graduates, either). The “Frosh-Soph Fight” got out of hand in the 1920 s. The underclassmen kept coming up with creative ways of “shanghai-ing” the opposition during this modified tug-of-war event. Once, a sophomore was found chained to a tree. In 1928, it all went wrong when both classes chartered boxcars in an ill-considered attempt to kidnap ...
Cash Windfall Coming To Gonzaga University, Wsu And Ewu Athletic Departments
... in a one-time payment in April. Gonzaga University, the only local school without a football team, will get the lowest regional disbursement of $287,156. Eastern Washington University, which gave out 145.51 athletic scholarships that year compared to Gonzaga’s 87.25, will get $478,901 from the NCAA. Washington State University will receive $756,381. That’s less than the $846,856 slotted for the University of Washington. Washington State University associate athletic director of athletic communications Bill Stevens said WSU hopes to use the money to help fund the school’s student athlete academic center. “I think we’re renovating some space to enlarge it,” Stevens said. Gonzaga University did not identify any specific plans for the incoming cash when contacted Friday. “Similar to other NCAA ...
Zags Ride Swarming Defense Into Title Game
... it look like you have a clear lane to the basket, but he’s right there,” Mathews said. “The different looks we can give you and our attention to detail, too, is one of our biggest strengths.”. Having bigs this big gives Gonzaga’s already-active perimeter defenders the freedom to play more aggressively. They never want to get beat, but knowing there’s a 7-footer or two waiting under the basket allows them to overplay their man and passing lanes. Gonzaga used its attacking perimeter defense to create numerous early turnovers by South Carolina while building a 14-point lead in the national semifinals. “We have rim protection and I feel like I can gamble a little, though I don’t want to gamble too much,” said Williams, who often guards the opposing team’s best scorer. “You know if you get beat, those guys in the back are there to pick you up.”. Gonzaga’s rotation also is ...