Kim Klement – US PRESSWIRE
I remember a day in college basketball when the little guy couldn’t compete with the big guy. Like in college football, upsets were few and far between, and games between small school and ginormous schools were merely a matter of the small school using the big school for recognition. But as the sport of college basketball has evolved and as technology has advanced to allow more sports programming, gone are the days when a school of 3,000 students can’t compete with a school of 35,00 students.
So we can start to name a number of schools who might be considered the best of the bunch, as we all have our favorite mid-major programs that we like to root for. But when the dust settles, I think there are two particular programs that stand above them all. The Gonzaga Bulldogs of the West Coast Conference, and the Butler Bulldogs - formerly of the Horizon League, and now of the Atlantic 10 conference. As member of the Horizon League, Butler was able to reach two consecutive national championships with a team that featured the likes of Gordon Hayward, Matt Howard, and Shelvin Mack.
In the West Coast Conference, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have been holding things down for over a decade and have become known as “America’s Team”. Formerly coached by Dan Monson, and later taken over by Coach Mark Few, Gonzaga has become the pride of Spokane, Washington and Few has become one of the best and most winningest coaches in the college ranks.
So I will leave the question up to you. When it comes to mid-major programs, which program is currently in the driver’s seat?
