Gonzaga No. 1 in final AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll; top seeds are 1-4

Gonzaga will head into the NCAA Tournament exactly where it ended up in the final AP Top 25: right on top.

In fact, that's where the Bulldogs began the season, too.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for coach Mark Few's team, which dropped as low as fifth after a couple of early losses. But the Bulldogs wound up with 54 of the 61 first-place votes from a national media panel Monday after romping through the West Coast Conference Tournament to land at No. 1 in the final AP Top 25 for the second straight year.

Now, it's a matter of finishing things off. The Bulldogs, who earned the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year, lost to Baylor in last year's national championship game.

«It's an amazing accomplishment,» Few said. «It's a reward for being good for four months, 4 1/2 months, and this (NCAA) tournament is a reward for being good for three weeks. So I think it's an amazing accomplishment by this group and last year's group, and these No. 1 seeds we've been able to earn is also simply another amazing accomplishment.»

The Bulldogs begin their quest for that elusive national tile on Thursday against Georgia State in Portland, Oregon, where they should have a hefty fan advantage. They would face Boise State or Memphis in the West Region's second round.

«It's a fool's errand to look down the road. There's so many good teams,» Few said. «We just finished a two-game tournament and that's what this is: a two-game tournament. You don't win the first one, you don't get the second one.»

The top four teams in the final AP Top 25 landed on the top four seed lines of the NCAA Tournament.

Arizona, which got the other seven first-place votes to finish second, will open against the play-in winner between