Death. Taxes. Gonzaga cutting down WCC nets… one last time

They became catnip for night owls, must-see TV for the insomniacs among us.

Hours after ACC basketball hit the hay and after the Big 12 tucked itself into bed, the West Coast Conference, starring Mark Few’s Gonzaga Bulldogs, would treat our bleary eyes.

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Gonzaga ‘Til Midnight — or beyond, depending on your time zone — became the college hoops predecessor to Pac-12 After Dark.

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It started in earnest in 2001, when ESPN struck a deal with the WCC. By then, the Zags were already of “The slipper still fits!” fame.

Gonzaga served up such late-night ESPN fare as playing St. John’s at midnight Eastern on Thanksgiving night in the ’01 Great Alaska Shootout (RIP), the perfect pairing for your third slice of pumpkin pie.

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Gonzaga beat the Johnnies, of course, because Zags basketball is good any time of day, but it’s spectacular in the wee hours.

Trading sleep for hoops meant watching Few’s assembly line of stars. Dan Dickau. Ronny Turiaf. Kelly Olynyk. Rui Hachimura. Drew Timme. Present-day Graham Ike.

And who could forget Mr. Mustache himself, Adam Morrison, the only thing finer in 2006 than J.J. Redick?

The casuals didn’t catch their annual glimpse of Gonzaga until March Madness. The diehards and the sleep-deprived had a catalogue of film on them by then. They watched the WCC grow up alongside Gonzaga.

As BYU cycled in and then out of the league, the WCC maintained staying power to the point it regularly sends multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament. The Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s series blossomed into one of the best rivalries anywhere on the Pacific Coast.

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No matter how sturdy the WCC became in any given year, Gonzaga kept showing up in the conference tournament finals.

Death. Taxes. Gonzaga cutting down WCC nets on a weeknight in early March.

Conference realignment consumes all things holy in the end, and Gonzaga’s majestic, nocturnal run in the WCC concluded this season — but not before one last celebration.

Gonzaga…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/death-taxes-gonzaga-cutting-down-112213304.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-11 11:22:00

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