San Diego State basketball fans will be paying doubly close attention to tonight's NCAA Tournament game between Gonzaga and Arizona, as it is being played at Viejas Arena and the winner will go on to face the Aztecs in the Sweet 16. I don't know anything about basketball, so whenever I hear the names of teams I just think of baseball players who went to those schools. Arizona had a few names that came to mind, but I couldn't think of anyone who went to Gonzaga, so I decided to look them both up. Baseball Reference has a tool where you can view players by school, because Baseball Reference has a tool for everything.
Arizona blows Gonzaga out of the water with 77 major league players over the years, while Gonzaga boasts a respectable 17. Kenny Lofton gets all the ink this time of year since he played in the Final Four with the Wildcats back in '88, but I was more interested in scoping out the Padres who attended each school. Arizona wins that battle even more decisively, beating Gonzaga nine-to-one. Here are the lists (well, Arizona's list and Gonzaga's line); each player's name is followed by his position and the year(s) he played for the Padres.
Arizona:
Craig Lefferts, RP (1984-'87, '90-'92)
Ed Vosberg, P (1986, '99)
Jack Howell,3B (1991)
Kevin Ward, LF (1991-'92)
Trevor Hoffman, RP (1993-2008)
Jason Thompson, 1B (1996)
George Arias, 3B (1997-'99)
Cory Burns, RP (2012)
Nick Hundley, C (2008-present)
Gonzaga:
Jason Bay, OF (2003)
If not for those three games Jason Bay played before he went to Pittsburgh in the Brian Giles trade, this would have been a shutout. The volume of Padres past and present gives any Friar fan reason to root for the dirty 'Zonies. Then again, if you're pulling for Gonzaga, there's a good reason for that: Arizona has produced more Dodgers, too.