Gonzaga confirms home-and-home series with Arizona State

Bulldogs and Sun Devils will meet for the first time in Spokane on Nov. 10

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

The reported home-and-home series between Gonzaga and Arizona State has been officially confirmed, as the Bulldogs and Sun Devils will meet for the first time in Spokane on Nov. 10.

According to a news release from Gonzaga Athletics, the two schools will meet in Tempe, Arizona, the following season. College basketball insider Jon Rothstein was the first to report the nonconference matchup earlier this month. 

The Nov. 10 game could follow a highly-anticipated matchup with Baylor during the opening week of the college basketball season. CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander said on a podcast Tuesday that the Bulldogs and Bears will square off “barring something falling through” and that the game could be played on a neutral site in Las Vegas. Neither school has made an official announcement yet.

For ASU, which officially became a member of the Big 12 earlier this month, it could face up to three West Coast Conference teams in its non-league slate. Now in year 10 under head coach Bobby Hurley, the Sun Devils will also face Santa Clara on Nov. 8 and could potentially meet up with Saint Mary’s in the Acrisure Classic, held down in Palm Springs, California, over Thanksgiving week. 

Hurley, tasked with replacing nearly 80% of the minutes played from last season, landed some key pieces in the transfer portal to replace the outgoing talent. Perhaps his biggest haul was on the recruiting trail though, as five-star recruit Jayden Quaintance could play big minutes right away as a freshman. The top-10 high school player from Raleigh, North Carolina, committed to ASU after he was released from his National Letter of Intent with Kentucky. 

The Sun Devils also landed 6-foot-6 wing BJ Freeman (Milwaukee) and 6-foot-1 guard Alston Mason (Missouri State) in addition to retaining 6-foot-3 rising senior Adam Miller, who averaged 12.0 points and 3.2 rebounds last season.

Conversely, Gonzaga returned seven of their top eight scorers from last season’s 27-8 squad, including All-WCC selections Graham Ike, Ryan Nembhard and Nolan Hickman, while adding a handful of talented players via the transfer portal. Michael Ajayi, a 6-foot-7 wing and All-WCC last season at Pepperdine, is a candidate to start on the perimeter; Khalif Battle, a 6-foot-5 grad transfer from Arkansas, can fill up the scoring column. Emmanuel Innocenti, a 6-foot-5 transfer from Tarleton State, is a defensive specialist with the versatility to play multiple positions.

The Bulldogs’ nonconference slate is loaded once again for the 2024-25 campaign. Along with the Bears and Sun Devils, they’ll face San Diego State on the road (Nov. 18) followed by a three-day tournament in the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis event (Nov. 27-29). Gonzaga heads to Seattle to face Kentucky (Dec. 7) before traveling cross-country to take on back-to-back champion UConn in Madison Square Garden (Dec. 14). Two weeks later, Mark Few and company are in Inglewood, California, for a date with West Coast rival UCLA (Dec. 28).

Game time and TV information for the ASU game will be released in the near future.