In the NCAA Tournament, no good deed goes unpunished.

Northwestern won its first tournament game in school history on Thursday in dramatic fashion, 68-66, over Vanderbilt. The Wildcats’ reward? A Saturday matchup against West Region No. 1 seed Gonzaga.

The Bulldogs, or Zags as they are known, own the best record in the Big Dance (33-1). Their lone loss of the season came on Feb. 25 to BYU, while they own wins over tournament teams Arizona, Florida, St. Mary’s (three times) and Iowa State. They went 9-0 on the road and 8-0 on neutral courts this season.

Northwestern coach Chris Collins was asked by BTN’s Dave Revsine what team Gonzaga reminded him of and he came up with a combo that should cause concern for even the most rabid Wildcat fans: Michigan State and Purdue. The Zags, he said, like to push the ball up the floor like Michigan State initially, and if they don’t get a basket “they become a power team,” a la Purdue.

The Wildcats lost all three games against those two Big Ten foes this season, going 0-1 against the Spartans and 0-2 against the Boilermakers.

Gonzaga has impressive athletes on the perimeter, led by first-team All-America Nigel Williams-Goss. And inside, they have nearly 28 feet of big men, with 7-foot-1 Przemek Karnowski, 7-foot Zach Collins, 6-foot-10 Killian Tillie and 6-foot-9 Johnathan Williams.

Northwestern hasn’t faced a front line like that all season, but Collins points out that his Wildcats have faced some formidable big men like Caleb Swanigan, Thomas Bryant and Ethan Happ in conference play.

“The Big Ten is a power league,” he said. “We’ve had to face quite a few dominant big men this year, and hopefully that experience with some of our coverages will help us (against Gonzaga).”

Offensively, the Wildcats will simply have to play their best game of the season.

“We’re going to have to be a function of our parts. We can’t go one-on-one against this team,” said Collins. “This is a premier defensive team that’s going to test our offense. We’re going to have to be clicking on all cylinders to give ourselves a chance.”

The one advantage the Wildcats may have is that there will be no pressure on them as the No. 8 seed making playing in their first second-round game after winning their first first-round game in their first-ever tournament. Gonzaga, as probably the best program in the country that has never played in a Final Four, will have pressure squarely on its shoulders as the Goliath in this contest.

But the Zags have some pretty big shoulders.

Here’s a quick look at the Zags.

Record: 33-1 (17-1 WCC). Thirty-three wins is the most in the nation this season. Wichita State and Arizona are next with 31.

The season: The Zags play in the weak West Coast Conference, so they front-load their schedule with major-conference opponents. This year they beat teams from the Big 12 (Iowa State), SEC (Florida, Tennessee) and Pac-12 (Arizona, Washington). But even so, Gonzaga hasn’t beaten a team from a major conference since December and has had only two games decided by single digits since Dec. 3: the 79-71 loss to BYU and a 77-68 win over Santa Clara on March 6.

Key stat: 50 – Gonzaga’s rebounds per game this season, second-best in the country. Only North Carolina, another No. 1 seed, had more with 54. That’s a function of the Zags size, of course, but everyone gets into the act. Williams and Karnowski are 1-2 on the rebounding list, but 6-foot-3 point guard Williams-Goss is third with 5.8 per game.

Key matchup: Nigel Williams-Goss vs. Vic Law. You have to think that Northwestern will put Law on Williams-Goss, the guy that makes Gonzaga go. Williams-Goss leads the Zags in points (16.6 per game), assists (4.8) and steals (1.7). He also shoots 51.3 percent from the field, 90.4 from the free-throw line and 36.1 from beyond the arc. Law’s job, as Northwestern’s best defender, will be to make Williams-Goss work for his points and make him shoot more shots than usual to get his numbers.

Three keys for the Cats:

1. Play loose. Northwestern has nothing to lose on Saturday. They are, in a sense, playing with house money after already winning the first tourney game in school history. They have to be aggressive, attack relentlessly and let the chips fall where they may. Gonzaga, as the No. 1 seed and 11-point favorite playing a Cinderella, may be a little tight. If the Wildcats come out hot and build some confidence, it could be a tight game, and the Zags don’t have a lot of experience in close contests.

2. Avoid foul trouble: Gonzaga has four players taller than 6-foot-8 Northwestern big man Dererk Pardon. The Wildcats’ bigs – Pardon, Barret Benson and Gavin Skelly – cannot pick up any cheap fouls that force Collins to bench them for extended periods. They will also have to do their best to box out the towering Gonzaga bigs to keep them from dominating the glass.

3. Share the ball: Assists are usually a good barometer of Northwestern’s offensive efficiency. When the Wildcats assist-to-basket ratio is high, they are playing well; when it’s low they are isolating too much and aren’t nearly as effective. Against Gonzaga, it’s going to take a total team effort, so the ball has to move a lot. Northwestern doesn’t have the athletes to break Gonzaga down off the dribble; they will have to rely on their motion offense and pinpoint passing to get good looks.

The skinny: This game could be closer than most observers think. Since that devastating loss to Indiana on Feb. 25, Northwestern has played some of its best basketball of the season. The Wildcats notched wins over NCAA tournament teams Michigan and Maryland, played Purdue to a virtual standstill and beat Vanderbilt on Thursday. If Bryant McIntosh puts on another brilliant performance (25 points against Vandy), Scottie Lindsey shoots well from distance and Law breaks out of his offensive slump, Northwestern could put a scare into the Zags. And if it comes down to the final minutes, the Wildcats have shown they have the mettle to close out tight games, especially with everyone in the arena not wearing a Gonzaga sweatshirt pulling for them. In the end, however, Gonzaga is just too big, too athletic and too deep to predict another NU victory. The Wildcats will make it interesting, but the Zags will ultimately prove to be a little too much to handle and Northwestern’s dream season will come to an end.

The pick: Gonzaga 77 Northwestern 70