Dan Dickau: WCC didn’t do Gonzaga any favors with its league schedule

Bulldogs will end the regular season with three road games and a matchup with Saint Mary’s in The Kennel

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

There was a lot to take away from the Gonzaga Bulldogs’ 2024-25 West Coast Conference schedule released earlier this week.

Upon glancing at the 18-game slate, one quickly notices there are two new faces to the league  — Washington State and Oregon State, both of which joined as affiliate members for the next two seasons. The Zags host the Cougars for the first time in over a decade on Jan. 11, followed by a road trip to Corvallis, Oregon, to take on the Beavers on Jan. 16. Oregon State then returns the favor on Jan. 28.

Of course, both matchups against Saint Mary’s are circled on the calendar, as the Bulldogs will head down to Moraga, California, on Feb. 1. Last season’s meeting at UCU Pavilion ended in a resounding 70-57 win for the Zags. The Gaels figure to contend for the top spot in the league standings once again as the defending champions.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the schedule, however, was the final stretch of the regular season in late February and early March when the Zags close out three of their final four league games away from home.

“You look at those last four games: at Washington State [Feb. 19], home against Saint Mary’s [Feb. 22], at Santa Clara [Feb. 27], at San Francisco [March 1]. Gonzaga has definitely got a tough stretch to finish out the WCC conference play,” said former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau.

The Cougars, under new head coach David Riley, look a lot different than last season’s NCAA Tournament squad, as the former Eastern Washington coach brought over a lot of talent from Cheney, Washington, to replace the program’s outgoing talent. It remains to be seen if that continuity carries over to Pullman, though based on Bart Torvik’s projections, WSU could contend for a top-three finish in the league standings once it’s all said and done.

The second meeting of the season with the Gaels will likely fall on Gonzaga’s Senior Night. As if that rivalry needed any more juice, the Bulldogs have a lot of seniors to honor and will likely be backed by a fiery student section in The Kennel.

The California road trip to end the regular season begins at Santa Clara, where the Zags suffered a tough 77-76 loss in January last season, followed by a drive over to San Francisco for a battle with the Dons. 

“Kinda got the feeling like the WCC didn’t do Gonzaga a lot of favors [with its schedule],” Dickau said. “No games in the WCC are cupcake games.”

“I mean you look at when Gonzaga goes down to Pacific — they might be 300-something in KenPom and the NET rankings, but that’s just a tough place to play … there’s really no true easy games in this league.”

Dickau shared more of his thoughts on Gonzaga’s schedule, Anton Watson’s two-way contract with the Boston Celtics and much more on a new Gonzaga Nation episode.

WATCH THE FULL EPISODE BELOW:

Produced by Christian Pedersen.

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