5 reasons Gonzaga will return to the Final Four

With the proverbial monkey off their backs, you can expect the 2017-18 Gonzaga Bulldogs to be back at the Final Four with their eyes on the National Championship.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs are still winners despite their loss in the 2017 National Championship game. Their historic run through the tournament put everyone on notice that the Final Four is where the Bulldogs want to be from now on.

Winning has been a tradition for the Gonzaga basketball program over the past 18 years since Mark Few took the helm. There’s no reason to believe a team that has made appearances in the postseason every year for the past 18 years won’t continue to do so in the future.

Now that the barrier has been breached and the Bulldogs have made it to the National Championship game, every sign points to a return to the Final Four in 2018.

Here are five reason why we can expect to see Gonzaga in the Final Four next year:

Mark Few

With all of the awards Mark Few has been collecting over the years, he’s going to need a bigger trophy case after a 37-1 record in the 2017 season led the team to their first-ever National Championship game.

Prior to the Final Four game Few was named the AP Coach of the Year. And if that wasn’t enough, Few beat out Chris Collins, Bill Self and Jay Wright for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award.

Under Few’s tenure, the Zags have made trips to the postseason every year since he came on board in 1999. A quick look at the history of the West Coast Conference tournament champions over the past few decades reveals that prior to 1999, the conference power changed hands every so often, but after 1999 it was Gonzaga all the way. Since 1999 the Zags have been crowned the WCC tournament champions 15 times. That’s 15 conference championships in 18 years.

Few’s 500th career win came against Northwestern during the tournament, and his lifetime record is now 502-113, all with Gonzaga.