NCAA Tournament: Gonzaga vs. Northwestern

In the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the top-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs are hoping to put an end to Northwestern’s historic run to the postseason.

Northwestern has already become an NCAA Tournament darling with its dramatic win over Vanderbilt in the first round. Now comes the monster. Gonzaga, sporting arguably is deepest, best team ever in its long history of March Madness appearances, is tired of hearing about the sins of its conference.

In a round mostly absent of upsets, Northwestern’s Brian McIntosh sank two clutch free throws to seal a win over Vanderbilt for his school’s first-ever win in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats’ coach, Chris Collins, was extremely proud of his historic squad:

"It’s been our whole process over the past couple of years finding a way and so many times in the past couple of years getting our hearts broken, not being tough enough to finish games…But, for the most part, I felt really good how we’ve handled end-of-game situations in close games. We’ve executed well. We’ve gotten stops. We’ve made free throws."

And they’ll need more of that against one-loss Zags, who earned a one-seed despite the normal criticisms of the weak West Coast Conference (St. Mary’s advanced in the first round, too).

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The Bulldogs are tired of hearing it, and perhaps we’ll see a dominant team flex its muscles this afternoon. The Northwestern story is nice–first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, first win in dramatic fashion, etc.–but if there’s ever a time to distinguish itself even from the consistently great Gonzaga teams of the past, it’s now for this edition.

The Bulldogs managed to keep their over-matched South Dakota State Jackrabbits in the game for a half in their 20-point, first round victory. If I was a betting man (I’m not) I would expect Mark Few’s team to methodically put the Wildcats down from the opening tip-off. But, as my past Tournament brackets can attest, I’ve been wrong before.

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Will Gonzaga crush Northwestern and advance to the Sweet Sixteen? The Zags tip off today at 2:15 on CBS.