Gonzaga in for ‘awakening’ if it joins Large 12

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins will not be satisfied that Gonzaga, a powerhouse in recent times, will maintain its success if it makes the transfer to the Large 12, one among America’s premier leagues in males’s school basketball.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Wednesday that Large 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and Gonzaga athletic director Chris Standiford had met in Texas lately to debate the chance, which might make the Large 12 a league that may rival and sure surpass every other in males’s basketball.

“I’d suppose it might be an amazing awakening for Gonzaga [to join the Big 12],” Huggins instructed reporters on Thursday.

Sources additionally instructed Thamel that each the Pac-12 and the Large East had “engaged with” Gonzaga as nicely, however the extent of these conversations is unknown.

All through its run as a males’s school basketball standout over the previous 20 years, Gonzaga has been slighted by Energy 5 coaches who’ve overtly questioned whether or not this system may duplicate that success in a significant convention. Starting with the 1999-2000 season, coach Mark Few has did not win the West Coast Convention regular-season title — or no less than a share of it — solely twice (2000, 2012), however this system has not received a nationwide championship.

Gonzaga’s supporters, nonetheless, counter with its consistency, its latest observe report within the NCAA event and the variety of NBA draft picks it has despatched to the subsequent stage. Gonzaga has performed in two of the previous 5 nationwide championship video games. And since 2014, this system has not missed the second weekend of the NCAA event.

The college additionally has produced 11 first-round picks underneath Few.

West Virginia has produced one first-round choose within the NBA draft since 1968. However the Large 12 has been one among America’s finest leagues over the previous decade, and two of its members, Baylor and Kansas, have claimed the previous two nationwide championships. The arrival of Houston in 2023 will solely improve the league’s expertise pool.

That gauntlet — the Large 12’s groups presently play each different workforce within the league twice throughout the convention schedule — is among the hardest slates in school basketball.

“To get on this league and play who we play day-after-day, I’d suppose it might be an amazing awakening,” Huggins stated about Gonzaga. “You aren’t getting to make your individual schedule within the Large 12.”