Gonzaga University

Adam Morrison's Attitude Is Exactly Why You Should Be Rooting For Gonzaga

... Tribune. You probably remember Morrison as the exuberant, 'stache-wearing 2006 NCAA scoring champion who never quite made it in the NBA. But he's much more than that, he points out. That is, he's a Zags fan. When he was 10 years old, Morrison was a ball boy for the team that's playing for the NCAA title tonight. His favorite Zags player was John Rillie. John Who? Here's Morrison. He's an assistant at Boise State now, but back then he was the greatest basketball player I'd ever seen in person. I'll never forget walking into the gym and watching him warm up by shooting from all over the floor - and I really mean the entire floor. John would be casually sinking half-court shots like they were nothing, the same way Steph Curry does today. It blew my mind. It was the first time I got to see firsthand how much work you need to put in to be that good. Watching him, I would daydream ...

5 Fast Facts You Need To Know

... beautiful Spokane River and is only a short walk to the downtown Spokane area. Below you can explore many of the wonderful opportunities that the Spokane area offers our community, students, and visitors.”. Click here to read more. 2. The University Was Named After Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. Cataldo named the school after St. Aloysius Gonzaga. The Italian and Jesuit saint is known for his work with victims of the plague. St. Aloysius was set to have a wealthy inheritance but decided to join a religious order known as The Society of Jesus. He died at the age of 23 after contracting the disease through his work with people who had the plague. There is a church next to the school known as St. Aloysius. The church has a statue of the saint carrying someone in his arms. Gonzaga notes it is the only Jesuit university in the world named after St. Aloysius. Click ...

How The Basketball Program Helped Gonzaga University Flourish

... bear of a player spreading his arms wide to catch his coach. It was, considering time, place and event, a perfect metaphor for coach and university. Standing quite literally at the highest point of his coaching career, Few finally needed someone from Gonzaga to rescue him. For 19 years, he’d been doing the saving, his Bulldogs not only growing a basketball team from nothing but also helping to save a university in the process. “The school was in real trouble" was the assessment of longtime benefactor Jack Mc Cann in 1998. Gonzaga coach Mark Few was an assistant under former coach Dan Monson before being hired as head coach. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson. Asked to join the board of trustees that year, the Gonzaga graduate discovered his alma mater was falling apart, operating at a deficit for several years, the ...

5 Things To Know As Gonzaga Plays For National Championship Title

... on Monday night. If the Gonzaga Bulldogs will, it will be their first national championship. KIRO 7’s Alison Grande is in Spokane ahead of the game on KIRO 7 News. Watch her report at 5 p.m. and then watch game on KIRO 7 News. Watch our newscast on-air here or online. Watch the game live on-air on KIRO 7. Related Headlines. PHOTOS: Gonzaga beats South Carolina to advance to National Championship game. For those who follow college basketball, the idea that Gonzaga Bulldogs (No. 1 seed) is playing North Carolina (No. 1 seed) for the national title doesn't seem all that strange. For those who don't — or only get involved when it's time to fill out a bracket — it still might. Here’s five things to know ahead of the game. 1. This was the second time Gonzaga was ranked as a No. 1 seed. Gonzaga was rewarded with its second No. 1 seed at the start of the tournament. The team started in the same place the Bulldogs did the other time they got it in 2013. In that year, Gonzaga ended its tournament on the opening weekend. The Bulldogs lost that year in the round of 32 by eventual Final Four team Wichita State. 2. Coach Mark Few boasted his ...

Cash Windfall Coming To Gonzaga University, Wsu And Ewu Athletic Departments

... in Pullman, Wash. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review). Gonzaga University, Washington State University and Eastern Washington University are among colleges across the country set to get a cash windfall from the National Collegiate Athletic Association next month. The money, however, isn’t without strings. It can only be used “for the direct benefit of the student athlete and their academic success, life skills, career success, health and safety and student-athlete focused diversity and inclusion initiatives,” according to a Q&A on the NCAA website. That list includes things like tutoring, educational materials, financial literacy programs, mental health programs, portable AED units and concussion education. The cash cannot be used for coaches’ salaries or anything designed to improve athletic performance. The amount given to ...

Zags Ride Swarming Defense Into Title Game

... during the first half in the semifinals of the Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 1, 2017, in Glendale, Ariz. Buy Now. Mark Humphrey. Gonzaga's Przemek Karnowski, left, and Johnathan Williams listen to a question from a reporter during a news conference for the Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Glendale, Ariz. GLENDALE, Ariz. — Gonzaga swingman Johnathan Williams bumped and bruised Sindarius Thornwell throughout the Final Four, shadowing his every step, preventing the South Carolina star from getting the ball, much less a good shot. The same scenario played out a week earlier in the Sweet 16, only it was Nigel Williams-Goss hounding Jevon Carter, preventing West Virginia’s best player from getting a good look with the game on the line. Once known only for ...

James Reilly, Who Helped Gonzaga University To Ncaa Boxing Title, Dies At 88

... boxing team could make that claim. That year, the Gonzaga University boxing team stunned the boxing world when it shared the national championship title with the University of Idaho. Gonzaga University was going up against some of the big powerhouses in college boxing, such as Penn State and Michigan State. Gonzaga was clearly an underdog. Some of the big schools had five qualifiers, but Gonzaga’s coach Joey August had only three: Carl Maxey, Eli Thomas and Jim Reilly. All three had already won Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Championships in their weight classes. Their next challenge was simply getting to State College, Pennsylvania, the site of the National College Boxing Championships. The cash-strapped Gonzaga athletic department couldn’t pay the air fare, so the Ringsiders booster club had to frantically scrape up the money. All three Gonzaga boxers won their first-round matches. Thomas made it into the finals – and then won his ...

Gonzaga's Storied History Goes Beyond Basketball

... steadily. Today, women constitute a 54 percent majority. The faculty at this Jesuit institution has slowly become less and less Jesuit. When Gonzaga opened in 1887, every member of the faculty was either a Jesuit priest or scholastic (training for the priesthood). The faculty remained mostly Jesuit for decades, but by the end of the 1950 s it had dropped to about 31 percent. Today, the percentage has dropped to about 11 percent. “The Gonzaga speech” becomes one of President Harry S. Truman’s most famous speeches. He delivered it on campus on May 11, 1950, and it was a stirring denunciation of racial discrimination, aimed at the Dixiecrats in his own party. Sports have become an ever-growing aspect of Gonzaga’s culture. In 1950, Gonzaga won its first-ever NCAA team championship – for boxing. The stars of the team were Carl Maxey (who was in the law school at the time) and Eli Thomas. School was canceled the next day to celebrate. In 1961, Frank Burgess earned nationwide recognition for the school’s basketball team when he led the NCAA in scoring. In the early 1980 s, John ...

Gonzaga Fans Take In Boisterous National Championship At Jack And Dan’s

... before, was thumping to the techno beat of “Zombie Nation” as the team took the floor. Busy wait staff carted pitchers of beer, trays of shots and baskets of fried bar food to a clientele that included students, alumni - anyone who’d simply grown to love the team during the three-week run of NCAA tournament success. Adam Henderson, sported a haircut, beard and jersey that had several patrons confusing him for famous Gonzaga big man Przemek Karnowski. Henderson posed for photographs with fellow fans as they tugged on his beard. “I’ve got a table in the back,” Henderson said, pausing in the bustling corridor between the kitchen and bar. “But this is where it’s at,” he said, pointing to the dancing customers surrounding the bar. Nearby, first-year medical student Sharon Uhder sat with a textbook flipped wide open to her notes for an upcoming test Thursday. “There’s three ...

Gonzaga President Thayne Mcculloh Sees Bulldogs’ History, Success Tied To Community

... last game in a Zags uniform. Then there was 2013, when the city of Spokane saw its own Dream Team fall in the round of 32 to Wichita State. Even in 2015, when the Zags found themselves in the regional final for only the second time in school history, the fans were cheering and feeling proud of their Zags. This year, the fans were right behind the Zags again, hoping for a chance to rewrite the history books. Mc Culloh said if the Zags finally take home the national championship, he hopes the community will feel just as part of that success as all of Gonzaga. “I hope Spokane celebrates because I hope that Spokane sees this very much as a recognition of what we – community, university and program – were able to do,” Mc Culloh said. But even if the Zags don’t bring home that national trophy, Mc Culloh knows his community will still stand behind them. “I think Spokane’s already ...

Przemek Karnowski

... Karnowski’s average was up to 10.4 points a game. The team exited the NCAA tournament in the second round with a loss to Arizona. In 2014-15, transfer Kyle Wiltjer led in scoring and the team went 35-3. The powerhouse team from Spokane reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament but lost to Duke in Houston and missed the Final Four. Wiltjer and Domantas Sabonis coalesced into a powerful offensive duo in 2015-16, but Karnowski was sidelined early in the season by a painful bulging disc in his back. The 28-8 Bulldogs got to the Elite Eight before losing to Syracuse. Karnowski had surgery in December 2015. No one knew if the big man could recover enough to play the college game again. He lost 60 of his 300 pounds during the ordeal. Ten months later, he was cleared to play again. “He’s not just back,” Gonzaga Coach Mark Few told CBS Sports a few days ...