Gonzaga confirms West Coast Conference schedule for 2024-25 season

WCC adjusted the league’s schedule to 18 games with Oregon State and Washington State officially on board

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

The West Coast Conference confirmed an 18-game schedule for the 2024-25 season, as the league unveiled the matchups for each of its 11 members on Thursday.

Each WCC team will play one opponent at home only, one opponent away only and the remaining eight opponents twice in home-and-home matchups. Last season’s schedule featured a balanced home-and-home schedule for all nine teams, though with the additions of Washington State and Oregon State, the league shifted its schedule. WCC commissioner Stu Jackson alluded to such a possibility at the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas, though nothing was made official.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs will face San Diego (home) and Pacific (away) once each. That means they’ll have two matchups, one at home and one on the road, against Saint Mary’s, San Francisco, Santa Clara, WSU, Loyola Marymount, Oregon State, Portland and Pepperdine. Specific dates, tip times and TV broadcast details will be announced at a later date.

The league’s schedule has the Zags traveling to face the Cougars in Pullman, Washington, for the first time since 2015, with the Cougars returning the favor with a trip to Spokane for the first time since 2014. WSU owns the all-time series 88-48, though Gonzaga has won six of the previous seven head-to-head matchups. Both programs are coming off NCAA Tournament appearances and were ranked in the final AP Top 25 poll of the 2023-24 season.

Time will tell if new head coach David Riley can build off Kyle Smith’s success at WSU, which is losing its top eight scorers from last season’s second-place Pac-12 team. Riley brought with him four Eagles players via the transfer portal. 

The 2024-25 season will also mark the 13th and 14th all-time head-to-head meetings with Oregon State, which has won all 12 previous meetings over the Bulldogs. 

Beavers head coach Wayne Tinkle and Mark Few have squared off once before, when Tinkle was in his second season at Montana and brought the Grizzlies to Spokane for a nonconference game against the Zags in 2007. Gonzaga won handedly, 77-54. 

The Bulldogs come off their ninth straight appearance in the Sweet 16. Seven of the top eight scorers from last season are back, along with Pepperdine transfer Michael Ajayi, Arkansas grad transfer Khalif Battle, Tarleton State transfer Emmanuel Innocenti and Colgate transfer Braeden Smith, the latter of whom will redshirt next fall.

The nonconference schedule has yet to be confirmed, though some notable matchups have already been reported. The Bulldogs will head down to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament from Nov. 27-29. They will face Kentucky in Seattle on Dec. 7, followed by a trip to Madison Square Garden to take on back-to-back national champion UConn on Dec. 14. Dates and times for matchups against UCLA (Inglewood, California) and San Diego State (away) have not been finalized.