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Reposted by  Danny B via USA Today

HOUSTON — There are, we're assured, no videos of whatever unfolded in the Gonzaga locker room after the Zags' 74-62 win Friday night over UCLA. Or at least, we won't be seeing them. When Kyle Wiltjer filmed and then tweeted Zags coach Mark Few's athletic but goofy handstand/cartwheel after they'd won their way into the Sweet 16, Few clamped down.

"What happens in the locker room," he said, "stays in the locker room." And he added: "If Wiltjer does it again, he won't play on Sunday."

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But Wiltjer will, of course. So will Gonzaga, against Duke in the South Region final. Which is why Friday's celebration, by all accounts and at least by comparison to last weekend, was fairly sedate.

If that surprises anyone — Gonzaga, after all, advanced to the Elite Eight for the second time in school history, and the first time since 1999 — they haven't been paying attention.

Yeah, it's a big deal, finally breaking through again. But these Zags don't think they're finished.

"We have to get ready," junior center Przemek Karnowski said, "for the fight for the Final Four."

They know many of you don't expect them to be in this position. That never mind 17 consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, the astonishing ascent of a program from nowhere to a fixture on the college basketball landscape, all of that has been overshadowed, to some degree, by hoops' version of, "What have you done for me lately?" — which means in March.

Until this week, Gonzaga hadn't been to the Sweet 16 since 2009. The string of early exits in the last few years — including two years ago, when the Zags were a No. 1 seed and were upset in the round of 32 — had become the overarching narrative. Despite another stellar regular season that led to a No. 2 seed, Gonzaga was a chic upset pick in many brackets.

"That put a chip on our shoulder, (saying) that we were gonna lose in the second round again this year," senior guard Gary Bell Jr. said. "I hope they think we're gonna lose (Sunday), too."

***

Matt Santangelo was part of the team that started it all, back in 1999. Now an analyst on the team's radio broadcasts, he understands the national narrative.

"It still feels like a cute story, but not a lot of substance behind it," Santangelo said. "You're constantly kind of defending it."

This team, the deepest and most skilled since the program burst onto the scene, might change the narrative. At 35-2, Gonzaga has already set a school record for wins. And the Zags can win in a bunch of different ways.

"This team is better equipped than any (of the previous editions)," Few said, "because of what you just saw in the (last) three games."

In victories last weekend against North Dakota State and Iowa, the Zags shot well. Wiltjer, a junior power forward, scored 47 points while hitting 18 of 24 shots. The veteran backcourt of Kevin Pangos and Bell played well. Byron Wesley's defense shut down the opponents' best player. It was very fluid and really fun.

And then Friday night, when neither team was shooting well, the Zags won with stifling defense and by pounding the ball inside, over and over, to Karnowski. A 7-1, 288-pound junior, Karnowski scored 18 points and pulled own nine rebounds, was far too much for UCLA to handle, with his skill — yeah, that's a word that gets used a lot in describing the Zags — at least as important as his power.

"In the past we haven't been as comfortable with grinding like that," Few said. "That was a grinder of a game. But we're all right with that this year. We can win 45-43, and we can win 80-72."

Wesley had 14 points Friday. Playing off of Karnowski, freshman forward Domantas Sabonis added 12. Over the course of those three games, Gonzaga has gotten production from just about everywhere, offering a pretty good look at what makes this team especially potent.

"We haven't had that balance," Few said. "That balance, our ability to score at multiple positions, and defensively our ability to protect the rim."

***

There's maybe a little more, too. In 1999, the Zags were upstarts with edge. In the NCAA tournament for only the second time in school history, as a No. 10 seed, they upset Minnesota and then Stanford and then Florida before losing by five to eventual national champion Connecticut.

"We were upset that you couldn't pronounce our names," Santangelo said. "We were upset that you didn't know where Spokane was. We were upset that we didn't get recruited by Pac-10 schools. We used all that as fuel to keep us surly, with a big chip on our shoulder. So when we got here (to the NCAA Tournament), it was like, 'Now, it's time to make some noise.'"

It was a cute story. Not any more, though. Gonzaga long ago shed the Cinderella tag, for several reasons.

The Zags play in the West Coast Conference, but their nonconference scheduling is at a high-major level. They play in a gem of a facility with overflow crowds. Since Few took over in 2000 — he was an assistant on the 1999 team — they've won at an incredible 81% clip. And if Charles Barkley still isn't sure of his geography — he recently said "Nobody knows where Gonzaga is" — a whole lot of other people do these days.

"I don't think we need an Elite Eight or a Final Four to evaluate us as being elite," said Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth, noting that Notre Dame just advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1979 — "and I don't know if anyone's having the same conversation about Notre Dame. … It's really hard to do what we've been doing."

He's right. And it's even harder, once you're in, to do what they've just done. The narrative has been especially frustrating to Few, who points out that not all of Gonzaga's teams have been highly seeded disappointments. With several of the teams during the 17-season run, it was a "Bob Beamon-esque effort," he said, "to just get to the (NCAA) tournament, let alone win one game. I think that's been kind of lost in all of this."

And it's just possible that in the focus on all those early exits, this team's immense potential got lost, too. Not anymore.

"What's the knock now?" Santangelo said. "The knocks are starting to dwindle."

And if it's been a long time coming — well, they're still going.

"This tournament speaks volumes about your program, about your team," said junior guard Eric McClellan, a transfer from Vanderbilt. "Winning takes care of all of that. I don't know whether we're underrated or overlooked, man, but it's about timing."

After all this time, they're making some more noise.

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