College basketball blue bloods ranked by all-time legacy

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18 March 2006: Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison (3) as the Indiana Hoosiers lost 90-80 to Gonzaga in the second round of the 2006 NCAA Men’s tournament at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by AJ Mast/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images) /

20. Gonzaga

Record: 1,636-1,116 (.594 Winning Percentage)
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 22
Final Fours: One (2017)
National Titles: Zero
Notable Alums: John Stockton, Adam Morrison, Ronny Turiaf

The newest blue blood is Gonzaga, a small school that has lorded over the West Coast Conference for the last two decades. Despite having a future Hall of Famer at the school in the ’80s with John Stockton, Gonzaga didn’t make its first NCAA Tournament appearance until 1995.

Gonzaga stunned the basketball world with a run to the Elite Eight in 1999, where they put a huge scare into eventual national champion UConn, and for many programs that feat would be the high point of their history. The Bulldogs built on that run by establishing a mid-major dynasty, making the NCAA Tournament every year since.

Dan Monson left Gonzaga after that Elite Eight run, turning the program over to Mark Few, who has done a tremendous job basically turning Gonzaga into the mid-major equivalent of a blue blood. Teams line up to play Gonzaga every single year, never afraid that a date with the Bulldogs would ruin their resume, and Few consistently gets great recruits in Spokane.

The one stain on Gonzaga’s resume was failing to reach the Final Four, a monkey they got off of Few’s back in 2017 when they lost to North Carolina in the national championship game. Winning the national title would fully cement Gonzaga’s place at the blue blood table, but their body of work despite playing in a very tiny league is extremely impressive.