Gonzaga set a perfect 26–0 record in the 2021 NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
The Bulldogs are the 20th team Enter the tournament with a correct record, And it set for the program to make its 22nd straight appearance in Big Dance.
Gonzaga has maintained an incredible run of dominance out of the West Coast Conference, but the success has come with frequent questions about its blue-blood credentials.
Will the program’s first national championship end those questions? It has become an incredible statistical run since the 1998–99 season.
Sporting News digs into those numbers.
More: Ranking of the easiest, hardest paths to the final four for each number 1 seed
Gonzaga basketball record since 1999
Gonzaga has the best record in Division I since 1999. The Bulldogs have a winning percentage of 653–131, .832.
How does it stack up with the best programs in college basketball? Gonzaga is one of four schools since 1999 with at least 600 wins. The Bulldogs have the highest win percentage among those schools (record as of March 10).
Division I programs with 600 wins since 1999
| Post | Team | W | L | PCT |
| 1 is | Gonzaga | 653 | 131 | .832 |
| 2 | The ruler | Is 664 | 149 | .819 |
| 3 | Kansas | 656 | 150 | 1414 14 |
| 4 | Kentucky | 607 | 198 | .754 |
Best record of last five years
Mark Few took over as head coach after the 1999 NCAA men’s basketball tournament and he built on that elite eight led by Dan Monson last season.
Has led the Bulldogs to the tournament for a few seasons, but the past five seasons have produced an incredible stretch of victory.
Gonzaga is 159-13 in that stretch – a winning percentage of .924. Villenova, who is 134-31 with a winning percentage of .812., Ranks second in that stretch.
During this five-year run, two impressive figures emerged. Gonzaga has not lost more than five games in a season. The Bulldogs also have not lost more than one conference game in the regular season in a five-year run.
DeCURCY: Can Gonzaga be undefeated in the face of a curse?
Best conference record
The Bulldogs are 368–38 in conference play since the tournament began in 1998–99. This is a win percentage of .906.
Gonzaga is 82-3 in the past five seasons in the West Coast Conference regular season, and he has won four of the last four tournaments. This was included in the previous season before the NCAA tournament was canceled because of COVID-19.
NCAA tournament streak
Gonzaga has the third longest active NCAA tournament streak in 21 years. Other schools with at least 20 straight tournament appearances coming this season were Kansas (30), Duke (24) and Michigan State (22). North Carolina went to the NCAA tournament in 27 straight seasons from 1975–2001 under three different coaches.
The Bulldogs never missed the NCAA tournament under FCA.
March madness success
The Bulldogs are 34-21 in the NCAA Tournament as the Elite Eight runs in 1999. Here’s how the success of the tournament breaks down:
| The goal | No. |
| First | 3 |
| Second | . |
| sweet 16 | 4 |
| Elite eight | 3 |
| runner up | 1 |
If Gonzaga has been criticized, it is that the tournament has not had regular season success. The Bulldogs have failed to pull out of the first weekend of the tournament in 11 of those 21 tournaments.
Few has helped dispel controversy over the past five seasons, however, with two Sweet 16 appearances, two Elite eight appearances and one run for the NCAA National Championship game in 2017.
The Bulldogs appear primed for one of those runs in 2021 – and this West Coast Conference dynasty has shown no signs of slowing down.
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