Everyone underrated Gonzaga, and now it looks like Mark Few has yet another team with Final Four DNA

LAS VEGAS — Gonzaga entered the season ranked No. 21 in the AP poll and was regarded as a quality team but one that, if it had aspirations of being Final Four-good, well those might be a bit too lofty.

The thinking went: With ace point guard Ryan Nembhard gone off a squad that had its worst season in a decade-plus, how good could it be now, after the comedown of 2024-25? Its nine losses last season were the program's most in 14 years, and it failed to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.

Gonzaga would probably settle into second- or third-tier status. Good, but not too good. 

Everyone who thought that — myself included; I also ranked Gonzaga 21st back in October — misread the situation.

The Zags are still damn good.

Mark Few's program got its best win of the early season with a 95-85 win over No. 8 Alabama Monday night in the Players Era Championship. A game between two dynamic offensive teams was expected to be a race to 90 and that's exactly what played out.  The win was Gonzaga's fourth this season against a power-conference school. That's led the Zags' push from No. 21 three weeks ago to No. 12 as of Monday's poll refresh. 

The Bulldogs dropped a cool 1.23 points per possession on Alabama's head, led by 21 apiece from a pair of guys whose combined ages equals 48 (!). Graham Ike, 23, and Tyon Grant-Foster, 25, pushed the pace and roughed up Alabama's overmatched front court. Another Gonzaga veteran big, Braden Huff, put up 18 points, and then there were 12 more off the bench from literal graybeard Steele Venters. 

"Our starting 3/4/5 had 16 points, and theirs had 60," a displeased Nate Oats said after the game. Oats has been at the head of an Alabama operation that qualifies as a top-10 program in the sport over the past five years. He knows what competing in the deep end looks like.

It looks like Gonzaga. 

"Big, they're physical, every time we made a run they had an answer," Oats said. "Gave up 25 second-chance points, it's hard to win doing that."

The scary part with Gonzaga: It got to 95 points and was just 6-of-22 from 3. Mark Few's got a squad that is old-old and sure looks a lot tougher than a few of his previous squads that were a circus with the ball but also had a sheen of finesse to them. 

Oats tried to warn his players about the physicality, but sometimes you can't learn without firsthand experience. 

"We showed them video of Tyon Grant-Foster just destroying people on the glass, multiple boards just keep coming," Oats said. 

Grown-man Grant-Foster got it done in key spots in the second half, a key separator in the final five minutes in particular. In total, more than 50% of Gonzaga's points came in the paint. 

"This game is about after the sets, the possessions, the broken plays and things like that, and that's where Ty really shines," Few said. 

For a minute, it looked like Labaron Philon Jr. was headed toward one of the best individual performances of this young season. He can be an irresistible talent for the Tide and is one of the best guards in the country (and perhaps the most talented). Philon finished with 29 points in 30 minutes — because he couldn't score in the final 10. 

"He was cooking us pretty good," Few said.

Then Gonzaga totally shut Philon down by tossing a medley of defenses at him to stem the Tide.

"Down the stretch we knew what we needed to do, and that's when we pad locks," Grant-Foster said.

I love that quote. He's right, too. This team has real verve. 

After seeing Gonzaga up close, it's evident there's enough variety in this Bulldogs lineup that it should be able to match up with just about anyone in college basketball. Freshman guard Mario Saint-Supéry got all 10 of his points from the foul line vs. the Tide, but he might be the most talented of any on Gonzaga's roster.

"He plays with great spirit and it's contagious," Few said. "We're still ironing out things with the crazy-ass jump passes."

With a 6-0 mark and a game against a still-developing Maryland team awaiting Tuesday night, Gonzaga's poised to be in a good position to play for the championship on Wednesday. 

Its goals look a lot bigger than that, though. And Few is putting out signals that he believes this team can be up there with some of his best. 

"Our wings our bigger than we've had, and we're a bigger team, almost like that '17 team," Few said. 

He's talking about the 2016-17 team, the one with Nigel Williams-Goss, Przemek Karnowski and Jonathan Williams that went 37-2 and lost the in the NCAA title game. Few also invoked the 2020-21 team after the win Monday night. You know, the one with Drew Timme, Corey Kispert and Jalen Suggs that went 31-1 and also made it to the national title game and is one of the two or three best teams to not win a national title in the past 30 years.

Those were the two best teams in Gonzaga history.

"Blue blood-level teams," Few said.

This one's has a ton to achieve before earning mention alongside those two, but it's fair to say just about everyone whiffed on Gonzaga's ceiling this year. The Zags got dudes AGAIN. This is team that has a chance to come out Vegas with a big statement and one of the best November résumés amid a deep top tier of very good college basketball teams.