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Gonzaga is on the Massive 12’s radar.
“I like Gonzaga,” Massive 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark told reporters earlier than the boys’s convention match. “Clearly an awesome program. My focus proper now could be to see what occurs all through our trade. There’s loads of transferring components. I proceed to have conversations with Gonzaga.”
Yormark additionally mentioned he believes “the energy of this convention in basketball, I believe, is unmatched,” which is notable given what he mentioned the league is in search of in enlargement targets.
“It is gotta be a very good cultural match at the start,” he mentioned. “Clearly, we have a look at geography. We wish to be a very nationwide convention from a model perspective and geographic footprint.”
There aren’t many reasonable applications to focus on for enlargement that will bolster a league’s basketball standing greater than Gonzaga. The Bulldogs are among the many prime groups within the nation on a seemingly yearly foundation beneath head coach Mark Few and simply defeated Saint Mary’s by 26 factors on Tuesday to win the WCC match title recreation for the fourth straight season.
This season will mark Gonzaga’s twenty fourth consecutive NCAA males’s match look, and it has reached the nationwide championship recreation twice, the Elite Eight 5 occasions and the Candy 16 a complete of 12 occasions throughout that span.
Each of the nationwide championship recreation appearances got here within the final seven years as this system continues to get nearer to that elusive title.
The Massive 12 will bear radical adjustments within the coming years, with the departure of powerhouse soccer applications in Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC and the addition of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF.
Cincinnati and Houston, specifically, have robust basketball histories, and a deal with the game whereas soccer has pushed a lot of the convention realignment dialogue can be notable.
A convention with Kansas, Gonzaga, Baylor, Houston and Kansas State, amongst others, can be a pressure on the hardwood, and it’s clear Yormark is happy with the league’s stature within the sport.
The Bulldogs would solely add to that stature.