Julian Strawther sends Gonzaga to Elite Eight with another shot for the ages against UCLA
LAS VEGAS — Julian Strawther asked his coach a question, and in the heat of a tense, win-or-go-home NCAA tournament moment, Mark Few didn’t want to hear it.
“Can I shoot it if I’m open?” Strawther said as Few drew up a play designed to get him going downhill toward the rim.
Few’s response was too profane for either of them to divulge, even in the euphoria of a night that will never be forgotten in the history of Gonzaga basketball. But the gist of it was simple: Why would you even ask? Of course you can shoot it.
And so that’s what Strawther was going to do.
It was immaterial that Gonzaga didn’t need a 3-pointer at that moment, trailing UCLA by just a point with plenty of time to get whatever shot it wanted. It didn’t matter that Strawther, trailing the ballhandler across half court, was standing on the March Madness logo when he got the ball with just a tick under 10 seconds left in the game.
This is Las Vegas. This is Strawther’s hometown. And every fiber of his being told him that the little bit of space UCLA gave him was going to be the best chance he would have to pull Gonzaga to the Elite Eight.
“I got the ball and it was in my range,” Strawther said. “So I shot it.”
Mick Cronin knew what was coming. UCLA’s coach had seen Strawther bury those shots all year: A top of the key three for a win against BYU, a couple late daggers in November to beat Xavier. It’s why UCLA had been determined to give him no space all night long, and at the end of an epic game the Bruins seemingly had under control, then frittered away, then stole back on freshman Amari Bailey’s three with 12.2 seconds remaining, a look for Strawther was the last thing Cronin wanted to give up.
“We should have been tighter on Strawther,” Cronin said. “We were the whole game.”
Just like that, they weren’t. Just like that, Gonzaga won, 79-76. Just like that, the Zags have gotten their payback and then some for a 17-year-old basketball sin whose relevance never seems to fade.
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On March 23, 2006, Gonzaga blew a Sweet 16 game to UCLA in a ghastly mess of mistakes that left Adam Morrison weeping on the floor. Ever since then, it’s the Bruins that have done the crying.