Does Gonzaga’s preseason ranking matter? ‘It’s about how they jell and come together’

The Bulldogs rank near the top of multiple preseason rankings from national media outlets heading into the 2024-25 season

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Opening night of the 2024-25 college basketball season is less than nine weeks away, which means the first preseason Top 25 poll from the Associated Press is around the corner as well.

Based on “way-too-early” power rankings from national media outlets, the Gonzaga Bulldogs could be featured among the top 10 teams in the AP’s first poll of the season. If so, it would be the Zags’ sixth time in the preseason top 10 since the 2015-16 campaign.

Gonzaga was No. 2 in the 2022-23 preseason poll, though it dropped down to No. 18 by the fifth week of the season after its third loss of the season to Baylor on a neutral court. Drew Timme and company still reached the Elite Eight in his final year of college.

Behind a pair of future NBA talents, the 2020-21 and 2021-22 squads managed to start and finish the season ranked No. 1 in the AP poll. Prior to Jalen Suggs and Chet Holmgren, though, Gonzaga had never been featured at the No. 1 spot in the AP preseason poll. However, as history would show, rankings in polls from August and September haven’t meant much to Mark Few’s program over the years.

Outsider expectations weren’t high heading into the 2016-17 season, as the Zags sat at No. 14 in the preseason poll. It wasn’t until a 22-0 start to the season that the voters decided to put Gonzaga at No. 1, which it held onto until a loss at home to BYU on senior night dropped its ranking down to No. 4 the following week. 

Still, the Bulldogs advanced to the program’s first Final Four and national championship game.

Conversely, the Zags squad from the year prior went into the 2015-16 season at No. 9 in the first poll, before Pzremek Karnowski suffered a back injury and was forced to miss a majority of what would’ve been his senior year. Without the Polish Hammer, Gonzaga dropped out of the AP Top 25 by mid-December. 

Ranked or not, the Bulldogs still went to the Sweet 16 with Domantas Sabonis and Kyle Wiltjer leading the way.

Last season, Gonzaga dropped out of the top 25 after a loss to Santa Clara in January. It wasn’t long after until national pundits started taking the Bulldogs out of their projected 68-team brackets for the NCAA Tournament. A 17-8 record for a Few-led team seemed like the end of the world to some fans and analysts.

Once again, the mid-season ranking didn’t matter in Gonzaga’s case. A handful of key road wins down the stretch of the regular season catapulted the Zags back to the Sweet 16 for a ninth postseason in a row. By season’s end, they sat at No. 15 in the poll.

Most of the rotation from the 2023-24 squad is back in Spokane for another deep postseason run, which has led many national media outlets to rank the Zags near the top of their respective “way-too-early” power rankings. But does it matter?

“How in God's name can we at this point in time sit and say that any team in America is going to be the number one or number two or number three team?” retorted Gonzaga play-by-play commentator Greg Heister. “Especially at Gonzaga, this is all about chemistry and building a team. We know they're very talented, but, you know, I know — most of Gonzaga nation knows — that it's about how they jell and how they come together.”

Heister shared his thoughts on preseason rankings and previewed Gonzaga’s 2024-25 season with former All-American Dan Dickau on a new Gonzaga Nation episode.

WATCH THE FULL EPISODE BELOW:

Produced by Thomas Gallagher.

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