Note to mid-majors everywhere: Look to Gonzaga for guidance

Gonzaga won its sixth consecutive outright league title late Monday.

It was easy work.

Mark Few has been pursued by bigger schools, but Gonzaga has been committed to the coach. (AP)

The Zags pounded Santa Clara by an 88-54 margin, just ran and dunked and high-fived their way to a lopsided win like they were playing Texas Tech or something. It was an impressive performance on many levels. And as I sat there and watched I couldn't help but wonder how many other schools could be Gonzaga if they just tried to be Gonzaga.

That's the key, you know?

Gonzaga is great because it tries to be great.

It doesn't rely on tradition (the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance was less than 15 years ago) or a strong league affiliation (the West Coast Conference ranks 14th at CollegeRPI.com, just below the Colonial and ahead of the Sun Belt) or a natural recruiting base that makes luring players to campus simple (nobody has ever labeled the Washington-Idaho border as a breeding ground for elite prospects).

Truth is, none of that stuff exists. So there is no obvious reason for this private university to be a basketball power, which means that practically any four-year university that wants to be a basketball power can be a basketball power if it follows the Gonzaga blueprint and gets a little lucky.

So what's the Gonzaga blueprint?

Simplified, it's a four-step process that looks like this:

• Find the right coach.
• Make a strong financial commitment to that coach.
• Build first-class facilities.
• Increase the program's budget across the board.

Do all that stuff and it'll be difficult to not be successful.

Gonzaga is the perfect example.

Dan Fitzgerald established a foundation and led the school to its first NCAA Tournament in 1995 before turning over the program in 1997 to Dan Monson, who had a good two-year run (one NIT/one NCAA Tournament with a combined record of 52-17) before turning the program over to Mark Few in 1999.