GONZAGA is shooting to be only the eighth team in US NCAA Division I men's basketball history to complete a perfect season on its way to the national championship.
The Bulldogs, who have never tasted a loss in 31 games this season, are just one win away from immortality when they take on the Baylor Bears on Tuesday (Manila time) in the championship game.
It's a rarity there, but it has been done before.
Bill Russell and the 1956 San Francisco team were the first to do it, with the Dons beating Iowa in the championship game, 83-71, to complete their immaculate 29-0 campaign.
Since then, six other teams have followed suit.
Lennie Rosenbluth and Pete Brennan led North Carolina to a 32-0 season in 1957, before UCLA did a perfect 30-0 record four times, with Gail Goodrich and Walt Hazzard leading the Bruins in 1964, Lew Alcindor (later renamed as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in 1967, and Bill Walton going back-to-back in 1972 and 1973.
The last team to do it was way back in 1976, when Indiana, anchored by Scott May and Kent Benson, steered the Hoosiers to an unblemished 32-0 record and blasted Michigan, 86-68, in the championship game.
Here in the Philippines, going unscathed all-season long isn't that much of a rarity considering the formats enforced back then.
In its earlier years, UAAP and NCAA enforced a pennant system, wherein the top team of the first and second rounds would face off in the finals. If the same team won both pennants, it automatically gets awarded the championship.
But since the leagues enforced the Final Four system, in 1993 for the UAAP and in 1998 for the NCAA, only three teams were able to achieve that level of perfection.
University of Santo Tomas was the first to go unbeaten in 1993, with coach Aric del Rosario steering the then-Golden Tigers to a 14-0 romp in UAAP Season 56.

Dennis Espino bannered the España side in ending their 29-year title drought as UST enjoyed a bumper crop of talent which included veterans Rey Evangelista, Udoy Belmonte, and Melchor Latoreno, and upstarts like Chris Cantonjos, Bal David, Patrick Fran, and Siot Tanquingcen.
The Golden Tigers were on a level of their own that season, averaging a 15.8-point winning margin. Their 27-point beatdown of Ateneo, 93-66 in their first assignment have served as a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the field. Their closest games only came against University of the East, 82-77, to finish the first round, and 73-68, in the second round that gave them win no. 9.
Everything, though, was just academic from there.
Like the MVP that he is, Espino tore shreds to the opposition, knocking them one-by-one as the Golden Tigers closed in on their date with destiny.
And in its final game, UST was just too much for Adamson's Kenneth Duremdes and EJ Feihl as it took a 75-68 triumph and celebrated the championship, the first of what would be a four-peat.
Curiously, that was the first season when UAAP instituted the Final Four format, and the Golden Tigers' feat forced amendments that in the coming seasons, teams who go perfect will only get a bye to the championship than winning the title outright.
It took 17 long years before another perfect season was done, and it came from Mendiola when the Frankie Lim-coached San Beda went 18-0 in NCAA Season 86 back in 2010.
Sudan Daniel anchored that powerhouse Red Lions team which included veterans Garvo Lanete and Borgie Hermida, as well as studs Rome dela Rosa, Jake Pascual, Anjo Caram, Kyle Pascual, and twins Anthony and David Semerad.
San Beda started its year in style, torching Jose Rizal University, 68-52, before going on a murderer's row for the entirety of the eliminations and winning by an average margin of 21.1 points, with its biggest coming in a 42-point demolition of Emilio Aguinaldo College in the first round for its win no. 2. The only time the Red Lions were threatened was against Mapua when it escaped with a 69-64 decision in the first round for win no. 4.

Calvin Abueva and San Sebastian stood as San Beda's final hurdle, but the Red Lions dispatched them, 90-82, in the final game of the second round and propelled the Mendiola side to a thrice-to-beat advantage in the championship series.
The two teams met anew in the finals, but San Beda hardly needed that advantage, with Hermida leading the charge in its 93-73 Game One victory, before Daniel locked up the perfect run with an 85-70 Game Two win.
It was the first of five straight NCAA crowns for San Beda that solidified its dynasty in the 2010s.
Ateneo, meanwhile, made sure that it won't take a decade before that unsinkable skid was replicated anew as the Tab Baldwin-coached Blue Eagles went on a perfect 16-0 romp in UAAP Season 82 in 2019.
Buoyed by Thirdy Ravena, Isaac Go, twins Matt and Mike Nieto, and Ange Kouame, the defending champions were the hands-down favorites coming into the season, taking down Adamson, 70-52, in their first assignment.
The Katipunan side took the best blows from their foes, the closest of which a slim one-point escape over UST, 71-70, in only its third game. But the squad, which also had promising players like SJ Belangel, Gian Mamuyac, and William Navarro, showed their pedigree, winning by an average of 17.4 points and even dealt NU a 37-point beatdown, 88-51, for their win no. 13.
Ateneo's final assignment, an 86-64 demolition of University of the Philippines, was a mere formality to earn an automatic Finals berth.
The Blue Eagles only showed nerves of steel from there, with Ravena leading the show in the Finals, unloading 32 points in the 91-77 Game One win over the Soulemane Chabi Yo-led UST, before the rest of the team followed suit in the 86-79 Game Two clincher and seal off the sweep.
That historic run completed Ateneo's three-peat to cement its place in the history books.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph