The NCAA tournament is about basketball but also so much more: the fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The Sweet 16/Elite 8 are taking place in 4 cities around the country and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD is covering all of the angles so you can look forward to a cascade of coverage in the days ahead. Jon Teitel continues our coverage from Las Vegas with a recap of Gonzaga-UCLA.
Gonzaga SR superstar Drew Timme was unstoppable to start the game, scoring 15 of his team’s 19 PTS during the 1st 8 minutes. UCLA FR G Amari Bailey kept his team afloat with 9 PTS of his own in the 1st 9 minutes as the Bruins edopen up a 31-21 lead, causing Gonzaga coach Mark Few to call a timeout to settle his squad down. The Bruins’ senior studs (Tyger Campbell/Jaime Jaquez Jr.) finally picked up the slack as they each scored double-digits in the 1st half. The Bruins committed exactly 1 turnover in the 1st 20 minutes, took a 46-33 lead at halftime, and looked completely in command. I used up most of my halftime celebrity sightings in Game #1 so the best I could do was…Jim Gray?
Timme kept pouring in the PTS during the 2nd half in every way imaginable: a pair of jump shots, a REB/putback, and a spin/bank shot to give him 29 of his team’s 1st 50 PTS and cut the deficit to 54-50, causing UCLA coach Mick Cronin to call a timeout of his own to stop the bleeding. The 2-time-defending WCC POY started the 2nd stanza 6-6 from the field but finally found a teammate to shoulder some of the burden in the form of Malachi Smith. The Chattanooga transfer had only scored 13 PTS combined in his 2 tourney games last week in Denver, but he rolled a pair of double-sixes tonight with 12 big 2nd half PTS including a jumper with 9 minutes left to give his team a 61-59 lead and a 3 from the top of key to finish off a huge run and take a 72-62 lead that appeared to have finally finished off the Bruins. NOT SO FAST MY FRIENDS!
The Zags only made 8-16 FTs in the 2nd half, which gave Jaquez a chance to show off his own conference POY skills. He had a coast-to-coast dunk, a corner 3, an old-fashioned 3-PT play, and then a layup with 32 seconds left to bring his team most of the way back as they trailed 75-73. Timme was the hero of the 1st 39 minutes, scoring 36 of his team’s 1st 72 PTS while tying Brandon Clarke’s school record for most PTS in a tourney game. However, he almost turned into the goat after missing a pair of FTs with 25 seconds left that would have made it a 2-possession game…and then things got VERY interesting.
Bailey made a huge 3 with 12.2 seconds left to give his team a 76-75 lead as the UCLA fans went nuts and Coach Few drew up 1 final play to try to win it. Jalen Suggs was not walking through that door, but Las Vegas native Julian Strawther was all aces as he drilled a deep 3 to take a 78-76 lead with 7.2 seconds left, then made a FT to put the cherry on top, and when Tyger Campbell missed a desperation 3 at the buzzer Gonzaga celebrated yet another dagger to the soul of Westwood in a 79-76 instant classic. I did not get a lot of good photos while up high in the overflow media seating but after hustling down toward the locker room I got some nice shots of the Bulldogs running off the court after their remarkable win:
In the postgame press conference I asked Drew Timme if he tried to put the team on his back as a guy who has only lost 12 games in his college career. He said that they just got hit in the mouth and had to battle/fight. The ball kept finding him in the 1st half so he kept shooting/scoring, and in the 2nd half the whole team rallied with Malachi Smith scoring a lot of PTS. It is the story of their year: the 1st half was not their “best 20” but they dug deep and kept fighting because while they might be down but are never out. I wondered if Coach Few saw any similarities to his last game as an assistant coach in the 1999 West Regional (Gonzaga faced UConn in the Elite 8 after Casey Calvary’s game-winning tip-in to beat Florida in the final seconds of the Sweet 16). He shut that idea down because “it was like 125 dog years ago”! He told his team that they would celebrate tonight’s win in the locker room…but as soon as they walked out the door their focus would shift to UConn, who he thinks is playing as well as anyone in the tourney. 
That is a wrap on 1 of the most exciting games that I have ever attended, so if the Elite 8 has even half the drama then it will be must-see-TV on Saturday night!