THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, March 31, 2016

Not sure if Gonzaga fans feel any better that, two days after the Zags lost to Syracuse in the Sweet 16, the Orange went on to beat Virginia to win the Midwest Regional last weekend in Chicago.

“Hey, at least we lost to the team that went on to the Final Four.”

Or ...

“Mulefritters! That could have been our Zags in the Final Four.”

Whatever.

Both the Zags and Virginia fell victim to Syracuse’s pressure. Gonzaga led for most of the game, and appeared headed to victory before being squeezed by the Orange in the final minutes. Virginia’s collapse was a gradual thing, an entire second half of suffering.

That prevented the Wahoos from reaching their first Final Four under Tony Bennett, who, it’s hard to believe, has been gone from Washington State for seven years. He was in Pullman for six seasons, the last three as head coach, before leaving for the ACC. Virginia hasn’t been to a Final Four since 1984 — the year after Ralph Sampson left. Bennett has taken the Cavaliers to the NCAAs each of the last three seasons, and four times overall in seven years. Granted, Virginia’s NCAA Tournament history isn’t as illustrious as, say, North Carolina’s, but compared to WSU’s NCAA history ...

UNTIL RECENTLY, Oregon’s NCAA Tournament history isn’t exactly a stellar one either. The Ducks once went 34 years between tourney appearances before making the field in 1995. Oregon State, meanwhile, made the field this year for the first time in 26 seasons — the time between The Glove’s senior season (1990) and The Mitten’s senior year (2016).

The only time Oregon made it to the Final Four, the Ducks won it in 1939 — the very first NCAA tourney, which consisted of 60 fewer teams than the 68 it has now.

Nobody pegged Oregon as a potential No. 1 seed at the beginning of the season, and there were a few guffaws when the Ducks received that seed on Selection Sunday. After a breather in the first round, Oregon found a way to overcome adversity and beat Saint Joseph’s in the second round. Don’t know of the Ducks used up their allotted emotion for the weekend in beating storied Duke in the regional semis (it’s hard to refer to Duke as the “defending champions” when most of the key players who would normally be back doing the defending already left after their freshman season), but they didn’t look like their high-flying selves two days later against Oklahoma, when they fell way behind early and never threatened against Buddy Hield and Co.

Still, it would have been nice to say a team we watched play in Spokane just a couple weeks earlier made it all the way to the Final Four.

SO WHO wins this?

Chalk would say North Carolina, but this has been a very un-chalk-like season (and not because Kansas didn’t make it this far). Maybe it’s Syracuse, the No. 10 seed, whose mere inclusion in the NCAA field was criticized, who wins it.

Maybe it’s Oklahoma, rewarding Mr. Hield for not leaving school early — especially since Kansas isn’t around to beat the Sooners for a third time this season. At least one Zag made it to the Final Four — fifth-year Oklahoma senior Ryan Spangler, a burly forward who played at GU as a freshman before transfering.

We’re pulling for Ol’ Roy — and we’re not talking about a trip to Walmart to feed the dog.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.