SPOKANE, Wash. — The Gonzaga Bulldogs have a new fan heading into March Madness. Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon declared on Monday night that the Zags are his team.
“We're going with the Gonzaga Bulldogs,” Fallon said on the Tonight Show. “Gonzaga is gonna go all the way. We love Gonzaga.”
Technically, Fallon picked the team and its fans as partners in his plot to have a little fun during the NCAA Tournament. The host said his plan is to give rowdy rags to all the students at Gonzaga’s first-round game against Georgia State. Then, when the game clock hits 11:35, he wants the fans with towels to jump up and sing a modified version of the song ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls.
I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha)
I wanna win, win, win Gonzaga-zay-a
“Go Zags ! Go Zags!” Fallon shouted at the end of the segment.
Gonzaga’s Kennel Club retweeted the video saying, “RIDE WITH US JIMMY!!!”
The Zags are no stranger to late-night talk show shenanigans. Host Jimmy Kimmel has had an ongoing “feud” with the school since 2019 when he declared Gonzaga did not exist. Kimmel claimed that he did not know anyone who went to the university and it was simply a Canadian plot to bust college basketball brackets.
Just last year, Kimmel took another jab at the undefeated men’s basketball team saying, “you can't beat something that doesn't exist."
"For the last few years, I've been challenging the world to show me proof, any kind of proof, that Gonzaga exists outside of this basketball team that they put together to make people think there's a university in Spokane," Kimmel said.
We haven’t heard anything from Kimmel (yet) this postseason, but many Gonzaga fans are probably ok with that.