A month ago, Gonzaga's run of 10 consecutive West Coast Conference championships was in jeopardy after three straight losses.
Since then the Bulldogs have recovered and Thursday night they play at Saint Mary's with a chance to move into a tie for first place in the conference.
It took six straight WCC wins for resurgent Gonzaga (19-9, 9-3) to get a chance to win an 11th consecutive regular season title, a streak second only to UCLA's record 13 straight crowns back in the John Wooden era.
''We're playing for a league championship on the last week of the year,'' coach Mark Few said. ''You can't ask for anything else, especially in lieu of where we were four or five weeks ago.''
It has been a fitful season for the Gonzaga faithful, who are accustomed to Top 25 rankings, high-profile wins, and a waltz through the 14-game WCC schedule. While several mid-major programs have grabbed the spotlight in recent years, Gonzaga's run of more than a decade on the national stage is notable.
But this year, the Zags fell from the Top 25 early. They lost to San Diego State, Kansas State, Washington State, Illinois, Notre Dame and Memphis. Perhaps most unexpected, they lost three straight WCC games in late January and found themselves at 3-3 and mired in the middle of the league. They had not lost three league games since the 2006 season, and not lost three in a row since the 1996 campaign.
Instead of folding, the Zags went on a run and avenged losses to Santa Clara and San Francisco. They caught a huge break when last place San Diego upset Saint Mary's on Feb. 16, opening the door for another league title.
Saint Mary's (22-6, 10-2) edged the Zags at home on Mickey McConnell's last-second jumper on Jan. 27. The Gaels can clinch the WCC title with a win Thursday. A loss drops them into a tie, and each team has one league game left on Saturday.
''These guys deserve credit for putting us in the position, but now we need to take advantage of that position and finish this climb off,'' Few said. ''A great job of taking it game by game and not collapsing under the doom and gloom.''
The Zags' rise came in part because of the emergence of bench players Sam Dower, Marquise Carter and David Stockton, the son of former Gonzaga great John Stockton. All three have seen their minutes and contributions increasing in the second half of the season.
''In order for us to be good team, everybody has to be good,'' said Carter, a junior college transfer who moved into a starting job and was named WCC player of the week Monday after scoring 38 points in two victories.
Dower is averaging 7.0 points in just 13 minutes a game, while Stockton provides solid guard play.
The Zags are also getting good play from Elias Harris, a freshman sensation last year who has struggled to put up the same type of numbers again. Harris, considered a possible lottery pick before the season, is averaging 11.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.
Center Robert Sacre has struggled recently, although he continues to average 12.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
The steadiest player has been senior guard Steven Gray, the leading scorer at 14 points per game. Gray, the lone senior, has the most perspective on the team's legacy of success.
''We don't remember when we had a game like this that meant so much in conference,'' Gray said of the Saint Mary's contest. ''We want to go out and make the most of it.''
History can be a burden for the Zags, whose sellout crowds are not used to seeing them struggle in the WCC. In the past decade, they went 128-12 in the league, and lost only two of those games at home. They are 88-6 in the McCarthey Athletic Center since it opened in 2004, but two of those losses came this year, to San Diego State and Saint Mary's.
Gonzaga's 10 straight regular-season titles are tied with UNLV (Big West, 1983-92) and Connecticut (Yankee, 1951-60) for the second-longest streak in history. UCLA won 13 Pac-8/10 titles from 1967-79.
Few, who has never won fewer than 23 games or failed to make the NCAA tournament in his first 11 seasons, said the future of those streaks is up to the players.
''We've got to put everything aside and play,'' Few said. ''There are no speeches this time of year.''
