Big Year In Many Ways For West Coast Basketball
I thought this tournament would be big for the West. I thought two teams from the West would make the final four, but unfortunately for my bracket, I picked the wrong two. I had Arizona and UCLA, but it was Gonzaga and Oregon that made it.
How rare is it? The last time two teams west of the Rockies made the Final Four was 1998, when Stanford and Utah made it. The only other time this happened was 1970, when UCLA and New Mexico State made it.
Gonzaga and Oregon are in different Final Four games, so it is possible that for the first time in history we’ll have two Western teams in the championship game. In fact only two times in the entire history of the tournament have two teams west of the Mississippi met for the title – UCLA and Arkansas in 1995 and Kansas and Oklahoma in 1988. There are less schools in the Mountain and Pacific time zones than in the Eastern and Central, just like the population is smaller, too. And before 1975, only conference champions were selected for the tournament and teams stayed in their regions.
Even hosting the Final Four has alluded the West. This year it is in Glendale, Arizona. The last time the Final Four was played in the Pacific or Mountain Time Zone was 1995, when Seattle’s Kingdome played host. But with the Kingdome, being torn down, the only inside arena big enough to host is in Arizona. The last time a non-dome hosted was in 1996, when the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., was the site. With the Rams new stadium coming and having the ability to be an inside arena, too, L.A. will undoubtedly get in to the rotation for the NCAA.
A little more history, if either Gonzaga or Oregon is to cut down the nets for the NCAA Championship, they would be the first team from the West since Arizona did it 20 years ago. UCLA won 11 titles, with the first in 1964 and the last in 1995 and UNLV was the champ in 1990. Texas Western (now UTEP) got it done in 1966. Prior to UCLA’s run, the West did pretty well. Oregon won the first one in 1939 and Stanford (’42), Wyoming (’43), Utah (’44), San Francisco (’55, ’56), and Cal (’59), but lately the region has been a non-factor.
The Pac-12 elites and Gonzaga have brought the West back. Now the Mountain West needs to step up its game and help make the region deeper. With San Diego State having a down year and New Mexico and UNLV not up to past standards, the conference did nothing to help the resurgence nationally. To do it, they’ll need to build teams around players that stay four years and develop together.
A Gonzaga/Oregon championship in Arizona could make this year the best in the West in a long time.
