The Bulldogs were attempting to get into one of the most exclusive clubs in sport – but their entry was barred by one of college basketball’s blue bloods

The Cinderella story is the tale of a young woman of the lower class who has her life transformed into one of wealth and wonder. It is folk tale. A myth. We know with certainty it is not a true story, because pumpkins can’t magically change into carriages, but more so because Gonzaga failed to win the national championship on Monday night against North Carolina in Glendale, Arizona.

North Carolina see off Gonzaga for program's sixth national championship Read more

Every year the NCAA sells the Cinderella as a major component of March Madness, yet the concept doesn’t really exist. The Tar Heels won their sixth national championship by pushing aside the Bulldogs in the final two minutes of the title game, turning a two-point deficit into a six-point victory. Gonzaga, a small private university located in Spokane, Washington, that doesn’t even have a football program, had made the Final Four, their deepest tournament run ever. But the Bulldogs still failed to win their first championship, falling to one of college basketball’s blue bloods in North Carolina, a university four times the size of Gonzaga and one with a program that very nearly won another championship just 12 months ago and is only recently removed from a significant cheating scandal. North Carolina is such an athletic power that it produced the top-rated quarterback in this year’s NFL draft, and UNC doesn’t even much care about football. So the outcome of the NCAA tournament title game was only a surprise if you don’t follow college basketball.

Gonzaga was attempting to get into one of the most exclusive clubs in sports and essentially had the door slammed in their faces when Carolina’s Kennedy Meeks blocked Nigel Williams-Goss’s spinning shot attempt with 17 seconds left in the game. That rejection quickly lead to a dunk at the other end by Justin Jackson that gave the Tar Heels a five-point lead and ended the game.

In the last 33 years of the tournament, since Villanova shocked Georgetown center –and new Hoyas head coach – Patrick Ewing back in 1985, the title has mostly circulated among the same handful of programs. Villanova has won it twice, North Carolina four times, Duke five, UConn four, Louisville, Florida and Kansas twice, Kentucky three times, with Indiana, Michigan, UNLV, Arkansas, UCLA, Arizona, Michigan State, Maryland and Syracuse filling out the pack. Not a Cinderella in the bunch.

To even use the C-word in reference to Gonzaga is unfair to an excellent program. This was a No 1 seed that entered the title game with a 37-1 record and has qualified for 19 consecutive NCAA tournaments. They’re led by one of the top coaches in college basketball in Mark Few and put out a lineup dominated by upperclassmen, with two juniors and two seniors making up the team’s four leading scorers. But as the NCAA tournament and big-time college sports go, Gonzaga is a decided underdog, and one that fell short of a title.

Six years ago it was Butler in the same position. The other Bulldogs program, 1,900 miles to the east, had back-to-back shots at a national title, only to fall to Duke in 2010 in the title game and UConn a year later. The latter was a 53-41 title game disaster that was even more unsightly than Monday night’s UNC-Gonzaga display that featured 44 fouls and 86 missed field goals. Those Butler teams were the peak years from a consistently good program, yet they still came up empty. Gordon Hayward’s half-court heave at the buzzer in 2010 nearly gave Butler a championship, and Gonzaga had the lead in the waning minutes against North Carolina – but close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and national championship game officiating.

Scoops Maroun (@ejmaroun) Refs missed BOTH of these baseline calls within seconds of one another. pic.twitter.com/muVJkOVkBr

If the likes of Gonzaga and Butler can’t win a national championship, then lesser programs – actual Cinderella teams – have zero shot. George Mason made a miraculous run to the Final Four 11 years ago but were dominated by Florida in the national semi-final, finishing two big-time, pressure-packed victories short of a national title. The program has fallen off the map since, qualifying for the NCAA tournament only in 2008 and 2011 and going out with double-digit defeats in the first round each time. Florida Gulf Coast made it to the Sweet 16 as a 15-seed four years ago, but fell to Florida – the Cinderella killer – in the regional semi-final by 12 points. They’ve been back to the tournament once since, posting a double-digit first-round loss to North Carolina last year.

The NCAA tournament is so lacking in actual Cinderellas that Syracuse making the Final Four last year as a No 10 seed was presented as some sort of underdog story. Never mind that rooting for Jim Boeheim to get another national title is like hoping one of the stepsisters gets Prince Charming’s hand in marriage; Syracuse basketball is not, and never will be, the little guy. A program forfeits that status when they win a national title and churn out first-round NBA draft picks.

“We broke the glass ceiling everyone said we couldn’t break,” Gonzaga forward Johnathan Williams said after Monday night’s disappointing defeat. Unfortunately, that’s not true. The ceiling remains for all but a select number of college basketball programs, and that quote perfectly illustrates that the likes of Gonzaga don’t belong in the club. Because as North Carolina might explain, the ceiling is actually the roof.