Gonzaga Shedding ‘Mid-Major’ Label With Run to NCAA Championship Game

By DENNIS CHAMBERS

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Forty minutes of good basketball play separates Gonzaga from their first ever national championship.

And if they pull it off on Monday night against the North Carolina-Oregon winner they will finish their season 38-1.

But people will still call them a mid-major.

Despite hearing the comments, Gonzaga’s players aren’t letting the knock on their path to the last game of the 2016-17 college season bother them.

“We just heard everything this year — we’ve heard the conference, we’ve heard we haven’t played tight games, that we’re not tough, we’ve heard everything,” Nigel Williams-Goss said after his team beat South Carolina 77-73 in the national semifinals. “Again to be 37-1 and playing the last game of the season, it’s just a blessing and I just couldn’t be more happy to be playing with these guys.”