Lost: One No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament. Last seen in a rowdy McCarthey Athletic Center, a.k.a. "The Kennel," around 9 p.m. PT on Saturday.
This also happened to be the exact same moment the calendar turned to March on the East Coast, which authorities believe was not a coincidence.
The one-seed formerly looked like a Gonzaga Bulldog, blue and white and with a spiky red dog collar, but it's now believed to be a Wildcat —€ the Villanova version, or perhaps the Arizona version — or a Badger, native to Wisconsin.
The circumstances were bleak, as the one-seed was taken away from its rightful owner in the most painful of fashions: on senior night, when Gonzaga was honoring three players, including one of the best backcourts in the nation, Kevin Pangos and Gary Bell Jr.
If found, please plug the one-seed into your imaginary bracket immediately, even though you know that imaginary bracket will have a few more sticks of dynamite taken to it between now and Selection Sunday.
The upset of the day in college basketball occurred in Spokane on Saturday — that much I am certain of. BYU ended the nation's longest home winning streak at an astounding 41 games, and the nation's second-longest overall winning streak, 22 games. The Cougars outshot and outhustled the Zags — two things Gonzaga typically does better than anyone else — in a 73-70 upset.
For one long moment, I swore this game was heading into overtime as I watched Kyle Wiltjer's on-the-mark halfcourt heave at the buzzer hang in the air. Then it clanged off the rim, and the air went out of the crowd, and that imaginary bracket that finally had appeared to have taken shape the past week or so was thrown back into chaos.
As soon as Gonzaga went down —€” only its second loss of the season, by the way, both one-possession games, the other in overtime to Arizona, one of the best teams in the nation — dumb people all around the college basketball world started recycling the game's dumbest annual debate: Should an obvious Final Four contender from a mid-major conference really be in the discussion for a one-seed, since its record was bolstered by playing mid-major teams?
Kansas guard Wayne Selden Jr. (1) celebrates a 3-point basket during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Iowa State in Lawrence, Kan., Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. Selden scored 20 points in the game. Kansas defeated Iowa State 89-76. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
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Hey, dumb people: Hush now. Gonzaga no longer will be a one-seed in this year's NCAA tournament. But if Gonzaga had run the table through the WCC Tournament next week, the Zags would have and should have been a one-seed.
Gonzaga is an excellent team. The Zags are in that same post-Kentucky tier that about a half-dozen other teams. Saturday's loss to a bubble team may change Gonzaga's seeding, but it doesn't change its standing among the elite.
Why? Look at the numbers. Gonzaga is the nation's fifth-rated team in offensive efficiency and the nation's 18th-rated team in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com. (That's a pretty solid test for a future national champion, by the way. Gonzaga is one of eight teams in the nation that check both boxes. Virginia, interestingly, is not one of those eight.)
And look past the numbers, at the sheer talent stockpiled in Spokane. Gonzaga has an elite perimeter defender in Bell. The Zags have an elite distributor at point guard in Pangos. Przemek Karnowski is an elite rim protector who is part man, part mountain. Wiltjer is an elite offensive player whose versatility — he's developed a post game since transferring from Kentucky to complement his elite 3-point skills —€ has put him on the fringes of the discussion for national player of the year.
Byron Wesley is a near-elite slashing wing who already established himself as an impact player in a power conference; last year, his junior season at USC, Wesley ranked sixth in the Pac-12 in scoring with 17.8 points per game, ahead of future NBA first-round picks Jordan Adams and Kyle Anderson of UCLA. And Domantas Sabonis is an elite, multi-talented power forward who'll find himself in the NBA sooner instead of later.
So, to sum that part up: Gonzaga is absolutely a Final Four contender, no matter the loss to BYU, no matter the program having fallen short in the past. Can we now move on to a debate that isn't populated by dumb arguments?
Good. On to the one-seed argument.
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I asked Gonzaga coach Mark Few how much he paid attention to the one-seed debates, and how much it matters whether his team is a one-seed or a two-seed. It hardly seemed to register with him.
"I really honestly wasn't into (that debate) that much this year," Few answered. "I thought there's a bunch of good teams you could make arguments (for) ... With the exception of Kentucky or maybe even Virginia, everyone's got some flaws out there."
And look: In the 14 days between today and Selection Sunday, all this is going to change. So this argument will shift in shape plenty of times between now and then. Teams we never would have thought would lose — like Gonzaga at home on senior night — will lose. Because it's college basketball, and as soon as you think you have things straight, it all gets blown up.
But here's how I'm looking at the one-seeds right now.
Kentucky and Virginia are shoo-ins, unless Virginia somehow loses its final two road games. (That's possible, by the way: The Cavs are playing at Syracuse and at Louisville.) After those two, Duke has the inside track on the third one-seed. I know two of Duke's three losses were to teams that may not make the tournament (NC State and Miami), but Duke also has two of the most impressive road wins of the season: at Wisconsin and at Virginia.
So the question is now who is fourth.
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Gonzaga is out; that's just life in the West Coast Conference. Wisconsin is a distinct possibility; if the Badgers had won at Maryland this week, they would be my pick. Same argument for Arizona: Sean Miller's team is in the thick of the discussion, and is on a six-game role after beating Utah on the road Saturday to at least clinch a share of the Pac-12 title.
But right now, both those teams need help to become a one-seed. They need Duke to lose, or they need Villanova to lose. Because right now, the one-seed that Gonzaga lost on Saturday has been picked up by Villanova.
Of course, here's the great thing about it now being March: Nothing is assured until those brackets are released. In the blink of an eye, like we saw on Saturday night, all this meticulous thought and debate and planning can be tossed up in the air and back into chaos, which, after all, is really the only permanent state college basketball will be in during the next couple weeks.
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