Gonzaga model: Grand Canyon faces the program it aspired to be when it began DI

It was decades in the making. A gradual move from a low Division I to a mid-major to the Cinderella of the NCAA Tournament and finally to an established top-25 program. Gonzaga's climb towards the top of the men's college basketball world was a trajectory leaders at Grand Canyon noticed.

Now, 10 years into Grand Canyon's era as a Division I program, it wants to make some noise, be that Cinderella that the Zags were in 1999 when they reached the Elite Eight and everybody fell in love with them.

They want to be the next Gonzaga in the West. It's been that way since GCU President Brian Mueller, with help from former Phoenix Suns owner and Hall of Famer Jerry Colangelo, started the transition into Division I. The goal always being a perennial top-25 program that not only got into March Madness on a regular basis, but to win some games, get to an Elite Eight, maybe even farther. And shock the college basketball world as the private Christian school in the heart of Phoenix finding its place at the national table.

"At Grand Canyon we want to be the next West Coast powerhouse," graduate guard Noah Baumann said. "If we want to be great, we've got to beat great.

"Gonzaga, the last couple of decades, has been amazing. If we want to make a mark in the coming years, we've got to beat them."

Why not now? In Denver, on Friday, in the first round of the West Region.

The underdog Lopes (24-11), the 14th seed after getting an automatic bid by winning four games in five days in Las Vegas for the WAC tournament title, face No. 3 Gonzaga (28-5) in a game nobody is picking them to win.

Gonzaga is a 15-point favorite and everybody, it seems, is picking the Bulldogs to cover the spread.

Playing with house money, the Antelopes will try to channel the Las Vegas charm that had them shooting better than 50% in all four games and raining 3-pointers on their way to their last two wins over No. 1 seed Sam Houston and No. 3 seed Southern Utah.

"I'm definitely not afraid or anything," said GCU guard Ray Harrison, the MVP of the WAC Tournament after scoring 30 points in an opening round win over UT Arlington and 31 points in the 84-66 win over Southern Utah in the championship game. "We approach this like any other game. We give them the proper respect they deserve but we also know what we are, as well."

Gonzaga made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1995 by winning the West Coast Conference tournament. It would take four years for the Zags to make it again. But that 1999 run to the Elite Eight snowballed into the run they've been on ever since, dancing every year there was an NCAA Tournament since then, reaching 11 more Sweet Sixteens, four Elite Eights since 2015 and finishing national runnerup in 2017 and 2021.

GCU is in the dance for the second time in three years now. Under coach Bryce Drew, and with the NIL deals on offer, the Lopes are attracting top recruits. Playing in a home environment they feel is second to none in the country, Mueller believes the Lopes can get on a roll in the way Gonzaga has as a mid major taking the nation by storm.

"I have tremendous respect for what they've done up there," Mueller said. "I think it's a model. They've leveraged it in growing the student body, growing the campus. They've been a model on how to use basketball to help an entire university. That's what I totally respect what they've done."

This is what GCU is doing. The campus has grown exponentially since it became a Division I program. Resources were put into building a state-of-the-art, 7,000-seat arena that sells out with a 4,000-or-so-strong student section called the Havocs that Drew and Mueller would put up against any college basketball environment in the country, including Duke, as the best.

Colangelo helped speed up things with NCAA leverage to get Grand Canyon's move from Division II to I. Grand Canyon's three national titles have come in NAIA, in 1975, 1978 and 1988.

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Colangelo is friends with Gonzaga coach Mark Few, who has led the Bulldogs since the 1999-2000 season. Few helped Colangelo with USA Basketball as an assistant coach on teams.

"He's a big supporter of GCU," Colangelo said. "Within his own conference, he's always talked us up in the a big way."

The '99 Bulldogs went from a No. 10 seed in the West Regional all the way to the Elite Eight in their breakthrough year under Don Monson, before losing to eventual champion Connecticut in the regional final 67-62.

"When we got to Division I and looked around, we couldn't help but look at a school that came basically out of nowhwere," Colangelo said of Gonzaga. "Pretty strong tradition for many years in basketball. I remember seeing (John) Stockton play when he was in college.

"They were someone to emulate because of what they were able to accomplish. They didn't have football. This was a basketball school. They had a formula. It may work for some and it may not work for others."

Before the NCAA transfer rules changed, before the portal serving as free agency, before NIL, Gonzaga wasn't getting top-30 prospects. They were getting the next-level, developing them over three to four years, and finding gems internationally.

"That formula was successful for them," Colangelo said. "We saw it. We took notes. If we're going to emulate someone, you emulate someone who has really done it. We have great respect for their team this year, and certainly great respect for what they've accomplished over the years."

The Lopes are hoping to use the exposure they will get Friday as a recruiting tool.

"Now we can say to players, 'Don't come and help us get to the tournament, come and help us get to the Sweet Sixteen,' " Mueller said. "That's a completely different sales pitch. Bryce can get out there and say, 'Hey, we made it two out of the last three years. We're in a position where we can now dominate our league, which is a really good league.' We're the 11th in the country now, and that's with New Mexico State having a horrible year.

"I have a lot of confidence we're going to crack the top 10 as a league next year. For us to turn this into a huge recruiting year, it's sitting right in front of us now."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Grand Canyon faces the program it aspires to be in NCAAs first round