Final Four: Can Gonzaga Untangle Themselves from South Carolina?
By Ben Renner
Gonzaga reached its first-ever Final Four by grinding out wins over West Virginia and Northwestern before they blew out Xavier. Can they stand up to their next great defensive challenge?
The Final Four is new territory for Gonzaga and newly-minted AP Head Coach of the Year Mark Few, but after being tested by Northwestern and West Virginia, the Bulldogs appear prepared to sweep aside their next opponent–the seventh-seeded South Carolina Gamecocks.
Many Gonzaga fans feel like they already made it by entering their first Final Four, but the Bulldogs stand two wins away from the NCAA Basketball Championship. Why not win it all?
The Gamecocks are an extremely well-coached team that plays well defensively together. However, they likely wouldn’t have made the Final Four at all if it weren’t for their best player, Sindarius Thornwell, who has played out of his mind in the NCAA Tournament. Stopping him offensively will be a tough task. The SEC Player of the Year has averaged almost 26 points and 7.5 rebounds per tournament game.
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But Gonzaga will also have to find a way to score against Thornwell and the Gamecocks, too. Thornwell is the best defensive player on a team with the second-best adjusted defensive rating in the country, behind only the Zags, according to KenPom’s ratings. Expect to see Thornwell and the rest of the Gamecocks working hard to deny entry passes to Gonzaga’s Twin Towers–Przemek Karnowski and Zach Collins–who are much larger than anyone on South Carolina’s roster.
The Gamecocks made the Final Four by listening to their coach, Bob Huggins disciple Frank Martin, who installed a defense-first approach in his program. They play a mean half-court defense, slapping at the ball, denying passes, and hustling.
ESPN predicted a South Carolina lead at halftime when the Gamecocks come out with a ton of energy and their frenetic defensive style slows Gonzaga’s methodical scoring approach, followed by the Gonzaga defense clamping down themselves in the second half, and the Bulldogs’ offensive talent winning out in the end.
In the Final Four, anything can happen, but Gonzaga appears to match up well with the scrappy, undersized South Carolina squad. If everything goes to plan, the Bulldogs will be in the National Championship Game, perhaps against those feisty quacks from Oregon…