Gonzaga gets disappointing seed in 2025 NCAA Tournament

The Bulldogs are the 8-seed in the Midwest Region

Cole Forsman | Mar 17, 2025

Gonzaga men's basketball. / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

In this story:

Gonzaga Bulldogs

The Gonzaga men’s basketball team will enter the 2025 NCAA Tournament as the No. 8 in the Midwest Region and take on 9-seed Georgia in the first round.

The Bulldogs (25-8, 14-4 WCC) will make their 26th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament official when they face the SEC's Bulldogs (20-12, 8-10 SEC) at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas, this Thursday. The winner likely takes on the region's No. 1 seed, Houston, in the second round. Only Michigan State has a longer postseason streak after receiving an at-large bid during Selection Sunday as a No. 2 seed, extending the Spartans’ streak to 27 straight trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Georgia, making its first appearance under head coach Mike White, enters the tournament having won four of its last five games. The Bulldogs are led in scoring by freshman Asa Newell, a former 5-star recruit who was considering Gonzaga before choosing Georgia. Newell puts up 15.3 points and grabs 6.8 rebounds per game.

Gonzaga secured one of the 31 automatic bids with a 58-51 win over Saint Mary’s in the West Coast Conference tournament championship game in Las Vegas last week. Braden Huff led the way with 18 points in his second career start, Khalif Battle added 14 points and five steals — including the game-sealing steal and alley-oop dunk with 36 seconds left — and the Zags brought home their 20th WCC tournament championship title under head coach Mark Few.

Gonzaga enters the big dance having won 11 of its last 13 games after dropping back-to-back league games to Santa Clara and Oregon State in mid-January. Since allowing the Broncos and Beavers to score 200 points combined in those two losses, the Zags have allowed their opponents to score just 65.0 points per game and shoot 39.5% from the field.

The Zags (25-8, 14-4 WCC) checked in at No. 8 in the version of the NET that released in the final hours leading up to Selection Sunday, boasting a 5-5 record in quadrant 1, a 5-3 record in quad 2 and a combined 15-0 record in quad 3 and quad 4 games. However the Bulldogs were No. 35 in the NET's "wins above bubble" — a measurement of how an average bubble team would fare against that team's schedule — the second-lowest WAB ranking among teams ranked inside the top 30 of the NET (Baylor, 39th).

Gonzaga’s Graham Ike, Ryan Nembhard and Nolan Hickman received All-WCC first team honors. Ike leads the team with 17.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-9 forward is shooting 59.6% from the field, 36.7% from 3-point range and 79.7% from the free-throw line.

Nembhard leads the country with 325 total assists this season, a Gonzaga single-season record and already the 10th-most assists by any player in NCAA Division-I history. The senior guard from Ontario, Canada, chips in 10.8 points and is knocking down a career-high 39.3% of his 3-point attempts.

Hickman is third on the team in scoring at 11.0 points per game. The senior from Seattle leads Gonzaga in 3-point percentage (43.6%) and 3-pointers made (72). Hickman’s 60.3% effective field goal percentage is also a career-best.