Gonzaga enters the NCAA Tournament as an 8-seed following a somewhat disappointing season by its standards. Usually the darling of the WCC, the Bulldogs finished second behind Saint Mary’s in the regular season but finished strong to win the conference tournament and nab the auto bid. Gonzaga’s low seeding is somewhat of a head-scratcher as many of the analytic sites have the Bulldogs as a top-10 team in the country, including KenPom where Gonzaga is ninth. The Bulldogs have made it to the NCAA Tournament every year under head coach Mark Few (26 seasons) and have only been an 8-seed or lower eight times, which should provide this team with a bit of extra motivation to prove the committee wrong.

Georgia returns to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade. The Bulldogs got off to a slow start in SEC play but finished strong, winning four of their last five games of the season to play their way back into the NCAA Tournament field. The late-season win over Florida at home was a huge boost for the Bulldogs - it started a four-game win streak to end the regular season. This will be Georgia’s sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament in the last 25 years, but it has been a little longer than that since the Bulldogs made it past the first weekend. Mike White has this Georgia program trending in the right direction, but will it be enough to pick up the program's first NCAA Tournament win since 2015?

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Gonzaga and Georgia series history

Gonzaga vs Georgia prediction

Gonzaga’s offense is one of the best in the country, averaging just under 87 points per game, with five players averaging at least 10 points. Graham Ike leads this potent offense with 17.1 points per game, but Khalif Battle (13.2 ppg) isn’t far behind. And facilitating the offense is Ryan Nembhard, who is dishing out nearly 10 assists per game while only turning the ball over 2.3 times per game. One of the more impressive things about Gonzaga’s offense is that even though the Bulldogs average a ton of points, they are also one of the most efficient teams in the country - making 50 percent of their shots this season.

The one “weak” spot in Gonzaga’s offense is its three-point shooting, but the Bulldogs still make a strong 34.4 percent from deep. Defensively, Gonzaga has been solid, holding opponents to less than 70 points per game. Teams have found some success at the rim against Gonzaga, but, are still only making 41 percent from the floor. 

Georgia, on the other hand, isn’t nearly as dominant offensively. The Bulldogs only average 75.6 points per game this season, with Asa Newell (15.3 ppg) and Silas Demary (13.4 ppg) providing most of Georgia's scoring. Newell has been the team's leader all season and should have a strong offensive performance if he can get to the rim - opponents are making nearly 64 percent of their shots at the rim against Gonzaga. Georgia is a good offensive rebounding team this season, grabbing nearly 12 per game, but the Bulldogs will need all of them that they can get against a Gonzaga team that doesn’t give up many offensive boards.

Georgia’s defense has been strong all season, giving up 69.3 points per game. As a team, the Bulldogs are solid defensively, but Georgia has been really good at defending the interior this season. Opponents are only making 47.8 percent inside the three-point arc, and a big reason for that is shot blocking and steals. Georgia averages 5.2 blocks and 7.7 steals per game this season. 

Both of these teams play good enough defense to make this a low-scoring game, but that most likely won’t be how this one plays out. Georgia was able to hold off a couple of elite offenses in SEC play, but, for the most part, wasn’t able to pick up wins against top offenses. Gonzaga holds a huge advantage over Georgia on the offensive end - there are simply too many offensive weapons to keep track of. Mark Few knows how to coach his teams to win in the NCAA Tournament and with Gonzaga being criminally under-seeded, there is no reason to think he won’t be able to do it again this year. 

Prediction: Gonzaga 77 Georgia 65