Gonzaga Bulldogs guard Julian Strawther (0) hugs his father Lee as his sisters Paris, center, and Paige look on after Gonzagas 79-76 victory over UCLA in a Sweet Sixteen NCAA Tournament basketball game at T-Mobile Arena Thursday, March 23, 2023.
Friday, March 24, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Someone called me a number of years ago and persuaded me to go watch the Silvestri Middle School basketball team play.
They were convinced the team was the best to ever lace it up in Las Vegas and promised I’d be blown away by a couple of the players.
That was my introduction to Julian Strawther, who, as the caller correctly pegged, was a once-in-a-generation talent.
The lanky seventh-grader stood out for many reasons: he was quick and confident with the ball in his hands, had a beautiful, high-arching shooting stroke and, most important, was having fun playing the game. There’s something about his trademark ear-to-ear grin that makes basketball a blast for everyone he’s around.
Fast forward to Thursday’s Sweet 16 at T-Mobile Arena, where Strawther drilled one of those high-arching 3-pointers with the game on the line to give Gonzaga an improbable 79-76 win over UCLA in a back-and-forth game that soon won’t be forgotten.
That’s especially true for Strawther’s late heroics, where he launched a shot from the top of the arch with 8.8 seconds to play and hit nothing but net. If he misses, you could argue it was an ill-advised shot with plenty of time left.
But Strawther wouldn’t miss — not in his city.
“It’s moments like that you can’t make up,” said Strawther, who immediately after the game rushed over to give his dad, Lee, and sisters Paige and Paris, and emotional embrace. “It’s moments like that you dream of in March Madness.”
You have to love his approach.
With the season on the line in the second half, Strawther emerged from a timeout with that same happy-go-lucky smile and encouraging teammates. It was refreshing to see, instantly reminding me of the many weeknights he spent leading the charge for Liberty High School.
And just like Liberty, Strawther wanted the ball in his hands with Gonzaga’s season on the line.
During a timeout ahead of the game-winning shot, Strawther asked coach Mark Few if had the green light to shoot if he was open. Few gave him the OK, and even though the shot attempt wasn’t ideal, “he’s made it from there before,” the coach said.
“We just wanted to get the ball to Julian,” Few said. “If he could go downhill it was fine, but I knew if he sized up one of those threes — we work that in practice all of the time — and he usually makes the shot.”
While the stage has continued to get bigger for Strawther — who went from the best player in Liberty history to reaching the 2021 Final Four with Gonzaga — he has done a tremendous job of thriving under pressure.
That included draining 3-pointer with about four minutes to play as part of a 16-point, 10-rebound effort in giving Gonzaga its first significant lead of the game at six points after trailing by 13 points halftime. So, yes, he still has that smooth shooting stroke.
“I am not speechless too much, but I was speechless (after that game-winning shot),” said Gonzaga’s Drew Timme, who had a game-best 36 points. “I am the No. 1 Julian fan now.”
Make no doubt about it, Strawther is a local legend — even before this tremendous collegiate run.
When it was time to attend high school, long before Liberty was a perennial championship contender, Strawther stayed with his friends and went to the neighborhood school. If Strawther would have gone to another school, Liberty basketball very well might not be what it is today.
There’s a reason Strawther’s Gonzaga No. 0 jersey hangs in the gym at Liberty, where he holds the school record of 2,252 career points.
“It’s the house that Strawther built,” Assistant Principal Preston Goroff said in a 2021 story about Strawther in the Spokesman-Review out of Spokane, Wash., where Gonzaga is located.
You couldn’t ask for a better representative of our community on a national stage. Strawther is one college basketball’s finest players, averaging 15.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. The junior is projected as a late first-round pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, if he elects to go pro.
What we saw Thursday at T-Mobile Arena cemented something else about Strawther: he’s immensely popular in the Spokane community.
That’s surely a product of his basketball ability and furthering the Gonzaga dynasty. But it’s also because the fanbase has had three years to witness those intangibles that make him a special human.
He’s a happy-go-lucky person, who, even when he was a reserve as a freshman at Gonzaga, brought a ton of energy and enjoyment to the court. The personality is downright contagious.
And despite averaging just 7.4 minutes per game as a freshman, he stayed with the program and worked on evolving his game. Not only did he wind up becoming one of Gonzaga’s outstanding players, he’s also a household name nationally.
That popularity has led to some noteworthy endorsements, including being an ambassador for Crocs and getting his own “Mad Melon” signature coffee label at Wake Up Call.
When Strawther was introduced Thursday ahead of the game with UCLA, the pro-Gonzaga crowd went wild. It’s how us locals have been cheering since his days at Silvestri, when Strawther and Jalen Hill (Oklahoma) put on a show in an undefeated season.
We’ll now be cheering for him to win three more games and become a national champion.
