Gonzaga debuts at No. 3 in first NET Rankings of 2024-25 college basketball season

The NET Rankings are the primary tool for evaluating teams for NCAA Tournament seeding

Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Ben Gregg (33) celebrates with guard Nolan Hickman (11). / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

About a month into the 2024-25 season, the Gonzaga men's basketball team is on track to earn a top seed for the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

That certainly wasn't the case this time a year ago, when the Bulldogs teetered on the bubble for most of the winter months before a road win at Kentucky in February turned their postseason hopes around for the better. Stress levels around Spokane certainly aren't as high at the moment, especially after the Zags (7-1) debuted at No. 3 in the first edition of the NET Rankings released on Monday.

The NET Rankings are a tool used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee as part of its criteria to evaluate a team's résumé. Now in its seventh season of existence, the NET takes into account strength of schedule, scoring margin, net efficiency on both ends of the floor and quality wins/losses. This year the NCAA introduced a metric called Wins Above Bubble, or "WAB," which is a metric formulated by BartTorvik.com that measures how many wins a team has over opponents that would be considered NCAA Tournament-caliber.

The NET uses a quadrant system to organize the quality of wins and losses based on game location and the opponent's NET ranking. The area that draws the most attention around March is the Quad 1 win column, which quantifies any game against an opponent ranked Nos. 1-30 in the NET when its at home, No. 1-50 in neutral site games and No. 1-75 in away games. So far this season, Gonzaga is 2-1 in Quad 1 games with wins over Baylor (No. 22) and at San Diego State (No. 60). The Zags' lone loss was to West Virginia in the Battle 4 Atlantis and they're 2-0 in Quad 2 games (Arizona State and Indiana).

Tennessee came in at No. 1 in the first NET Rankings, followed by Auburn, Gonzaga, Duke and Pittsburgh in the top five. Auburn is the only team in the nation with at least four Quad 1 victories, as the Tigers came away with three straight high-quality victories over Iowa State (No. 19), North Carolina (No. 26) and Memphis (No. 31) to win the Maui Invitational.

Kentucky, which faces Gonzaga at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday, checked in at No. 8 in the NET. Despite six of their seven wins coming against Quad 3 or 4 teams, the Wildcats' efficiency numbers hold up their top 10 rankings, as they lead the country in scoring offense (96.7 points) and field goals made per game (34.6) in addition to grabbing 45.0 rebounds per game (fourth-best) and dishing out 21.1 assists per game (second-best).

After attempting to tame the highly potent Wildcats, the Bulldogs will travel across the country to tangle with a reeling UConn squad that looks like a shell of its National Championship self. The Huskies dropped three consecutive games in the Maui Invitational, prompting Dan Hurley to vow against participating in any more three-day, three-game MTEs for as long as he's UConn's head coach. Ranked No. 39 in the NET, Hurley and company have work to do as they prepare to host Baylor on Wednesday.

In addition to Kentucky and UConn, Gonzaga is slated to have one more Quad 1 opportunity before West Coast Conference play, when it faces UCLA (No. 16) at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, on Dec. 28. The Bruins are off to a 6-1 start and have lost their only Quad 1 game of the season so far to New Mexico on Nov. 8. Since then Mick Cronin's new-look squad, led by Kamiakin, Washington, native Tyler Bilodeau (13.9 points, 5.7 rebounds) has taken care of business at Pauley Pavilion leading up to a three-game stretch against Washington, Oregon and Arizona. The Bruins also have a trip to Madison Square Garden, where they'll take on North Carolina a week before dueling the Zags.

In the WCC, Saint Mary's (6-1) cracked the NET's top 25, while Oregon State (4-2) just snuck into the top 50 at No. 49. The Gaels earned a Quad 1 win when they outlasted Nebraska (No. 44) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Nov. 17. The Beavers had an opportunity to pick up a high-quality victory over their in-state rival slip through their grasps, as the Ducks overcame a 12-point deficit to win 78-75 in Corvallis, Oregon, on Nov. 21. Wayne Tinkle and company then came up short on the road to North Texas, 58-55, in another Quad 1 opportunity on Nov. 25.

San Francisco (6-2) is No. 52 in the NET, followed by Washington State (6-2) in the top 100 at No. 87.

MORE GONZAGA NEWS & ANALYSIS

• Andrew Nembhard records season-high in first game back from injury

• Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard rises to the challenge his senior year: 'It was time for a big jump'

• Gonzaga's Ismaila Diagne suffers sprained MCL

• What Gonzaga's Mark Few said after win vs. Indiana in Battle 4 Atlantis