Link to video clip in comments.

Every March, every time there's any kind of regional or game in San Antonio, I'm reminded of the horrible slander than this lovely city in heart of Texas suffers due to the I'll intentioned comments from this former NBA star. Even worse, a lot of the comments were particularly directed to the female population of the city.

Why does Charles harbor such terrible resentment? Are people in San Antonio not allowed to like churros? Can't the Riverwalk just be accepted as a river by Texas standards?

Let me preface by saying that I am a Gonzaga Alum and avid fan of the program. I’m positive most of Gonzaga’s fan base will blast me for even asking this question but I wanted to present this question here with a more national college fan base. Is Gonzaga’s window closing in the modern NIL era?

Historically, the program was built with underdog under recruited players who developed. Then they were early to the Euro recruiting pipeline and were also early adopters of the transfer portal. Doing this they were able to develop players in their system and add in talent where needed. Then they started getting the 5 star one and done type prospects and that’s when they were finally able to make 2 Final 4s.

Now in the new NIL era they have missed out on the high end recruits and seemingly some of the transfers as well. They are losing more of their own recruits to the portal and every year feels like a hodge podge roster now. The rest of college basketball has caught up to their recruiting strategy and I don’t see how a small Jesuit University can compete with a large State school NIL collective.

Personally I point to losing Tommy Lloyd as part of the reason why Gonzaga is losing recruits, but I also think there is a NIL money issue as well. I don’t think they can pay what others can. I’m not sure moving to the Pac12 helps in that regard. So.. is their window closing ?

Box Score

^{Index Thread for April 05, 2025}

Box Score

^{Index Thread for April 05, 2025}

First non-portal commitment for Will Wade and staff.

Coogs on the Riverwalk!

He is a fucking awful ref, known for his awful call during the Samford vs Kansas game which gave kansas the win

To his awful reffing during Pac-12 games (as a ucla fan, i remember yelling fuck you refs when he made some shit calls)

He even had some awful calls this year during march madness but i forgot which specific games he reffed this march.

The refs havent made a bad call yet but would not be surprised if tony padilla has at least one ass call tonight

This year’s Final Four features Duke, the #1 most efficient offense according to KenPom, facing off against the most restrictive defense in Houston. In the KenPom Era (since 2002), the #1 offense and Defense have met in the tournament six times – five in last 12 years – with the record split at 303 (3-2 in favor of offense in last 5).

• 2024 Sweet 16: Illinois (#1 O) over Iowa St (#1D) 72-69
• 2022 Sweet 16: Duke (#1 O) over Texas Tech (#1 D) 78-73
• 2019 Elite 8: Texas Tech (#1 D) over Gonzaga (#1 O) 75-69
• 2015 Final Four: Wisconsin (#1 O) over Kentucky (#1 D) 71-64
• 2013 Championship Game: Louisville (#1 D) over Michigan (#1 O) 82-76
• 2008 Final Four: Kansas (#1 D) over North Carolina (#1 O) 84-66
• Average Score of Last 5 Matchups: 73.2 Off - 72.6 Def !!!

[NOTE: In the earlier years, we see a lot more heavily imbalanced teams at the top of the ranks, like 2011 FSU and 2003 Georgia, so it's only from 2012 and on that these ranks mean what we think of today)

Additionally, the top rated offense has matched up with a top 5 defense in the tournament 5 other times since 2012, going 4-1 (6-3 overall including #1 matchups)

• 2023 Sweet 16: Gonzaga over UCLA (#2 Def) 79-76
• 2018 Elite 8: Villanova over Texas Tech (#4 def) 71-59
• 2016 Championship Game: Villanova (#5 def) tops North Carolina 77-74
• 2013 Tournament: Michigan beats both Kansas (#4 def) in S16, 87-85 in OT, followed by Florida (#3) 79-59 in E8 [Only to fall to #1 def Louisville in the finals]

However, while the #1 Defense against Top 5 offenses since 2012 are 3-3, and 5-5 including games vs #1 offense, but these results include repeat teams, as often the top defense has to run through a gauntlet through the top offenses to move on in the bracket.

For example, 2019 Texas Tech fresh off its upset of Gonzaga (#1 Off), also defeated Michigan State (#5 Off) 61-51 in the Final Four, before losing in title game to #2 Virginia 85-77 in OT.  The 2015 matchup between Kentucky (#1 Def) and Notre Dame (#2 Off) went to the Defense, but only narrowly 68-66, before said Kentucky team would be handed their only loss of the season via the top offense.  And the 2012 Louisville team bested Florida (#3 Offense) 72-68 in the Elite 8, before losing in Final Four to Kentucky (#2 Off) 69-61. The only other occurrence (since 2012) was the 64-63 OT win by Ariona (#4 off) over Wisconsin (#1 Def) in the 2014 Elite 6.

Finally, as you may have noticed from the scores or even remembering these clashes, these matchups are typically very close, with the average margin only 6 points (counting OT games as 0, so difference at end of regulation).  Only 3 of these matchups since 2012 have been decided by more than 8 points, the same number of games that have needed an extra 5 minutes of overtime!

So maybe take the points?

tl;dr –The #1 offense has a better record against top 5 defenses in the tournament than the most efficient defense, the #1vs#1 head-to-head is a nearly even 3-2 split over the last 15 years, and these matchups are often exceptionally close, with the outcome usually in doubt heading into the last 3 minutes

With this epic UCF/Nova Crown game, clearly all college basketball fans will be watching this and not tune into the beginning of Auburn/Florida. NCAA better push start time back or they’ll have upset advertisers