I'm no fan of Arizona. I root for Arizona State and Pitt, not necessarily in that order. That said, I do have to acknowledge that the UofA does have a very good basketball program. The stats you brought up are from two different coaching regimes. Lute Olson has the championship program, and it was he who brought the UofA from a mildly successful program in the southwestern desert to a team worthy of national prominence. Because of health issues and family matters, Lute was forced to retire in 2008 (really 2006; interim coach for 2 years). Sean Miller took over the program in 2009. Sean has not had the national success that Lute's teams enjoyed (yet). I believe that Arizona has not been in the Final Four under Miller at all; two or maybe three Elite Eight appearances, but nothing more than that.
On the other hand, Gonzaga (out of Washington state, I think) has for a long , long time had winning teams, but they've compiled that record against a ton of lesser opponents. For whatever reasons, Gonzaga just doesn't travel a whole lot to play the likes of good teams in the top conferences. About the only time you see them play some team like a Michigan or a Kentucky would be in an early season tournament game at a neutral site, and to be honest, I have no idea how well they've fared in games like that over the years. Other than the Pac 12, I'm not sure who they've played in regularly scheduled non-conference games, maybe some also rans in the Big 12, but mostly west of the Rockies teams...
EK!!! |
