Gonzaga prepares for Oregon State, Washington State matchups in new WCC schedule

The Zags will host WSU on Jan. 11 - the first head-to-head meeting between the two schools in Spokane since December 2014

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Prior to joining USA Basketball for its trip to Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games, Gonzaga men’s basketball head coach Mark Few didn’t offer much opinion on the new-look West Coast Conference, though he was cognizant of how an 18-game schedule will impact his team’s ability to schedule nonconference opponents.

“It’s certainly changed our nonleague,” Few said at a media availability in June. “We have a lot less nonleague games, which are very important to us. Now we’re going to play 18 league games, so that’s impacted our nonleague scheduling to a certain extent.”

Gonzaga still has some heavy hitters on its nonconference schedule — Kentucky (Dec. 7), UConn (Dec. 14), UCLA (Dec. 28) and San Diego State (TBA) to name a handful — but Few’s comments have some truth baked in considering how the additions of Washington State and Oregon State have altered the quality of the Bulldogs’ 2024-25 slate in its entirety.

Consider this: excluding the conference tournament, the Zags had six games that were either Quad 1 or Quad 2 worthy in WCC play and just three Quad 3 games in the league last season. Based on the current Bart Torvik projections for the 2024-25 campaign, there’s slated to be one less Quad 1 game and a whopping seven Quad 3 games on the schedule.

Few and the coaching staff are used to loading up high-profile games in November and December to offset the WCC slate, and this season won’t be any different. After it was reported that a home-and-home series with Arizona State will begin next season, there are four open slots in the schedule that can be filled with nonleague opponents. As more and more programs finalize their respective schedules, it will be interesting to see which ones are willing to face the Bulldogs during the first few weeks of the season.

That said, there will still be opportunities in January and February to boost the NCAA Tournament resume. Here are more thoughts on Gonzaga’s 18-game WCC schedule.

A NICE WARMUP

As mentioned, Gonzaga’s December slate should prove to be quite the challenge before WCC play tips off at the end of the month. Perhaps for the best, the Bulldogs won’t play any team that finished in the top four of the conference standings for the first two weeks of January. In fact, three of their first four opponents (Pepperdine, Portland, San Diego) are ranked in the mid-200s or worse in Torvik’s 2024-25 projections. 

One interesting storyline to track heading into the WCC opener will be Michael Ajayi’s return to Malibu, California, where he spent the 2023-24 season with Pepperdine before transferring to Gonzaga this offseason. The 6-foot-7 wing was an All-WCC selection with the Waves, as he led the league in scoring at 17.2 points to go with 9.9 rebounds per game. With most of last season’s Pepperdine squad gone, including coach Lorenzo Romar, it will be interesting to see what kind of atmosphere Ajayi and the Zags encounter.

Ajayi will have a chance to reunite with Romar on Jan. 4 when the Bulldogs head to Los Angeles to take on Loyola Marymount, which brought Romar in as an assistant coach after he parted ways with Pepperdine. The Lions also come to Spokane on Feb. 6.

THE NEWBIES

Perhaps the weirdest and most unexpected piece of information regarding Gonzaga’s WCC schedule: the Zags are 0-12 all-time vs. Oregon State.

Gonzaga, which has appeared in 25 straight NCAA Tournaments and has beaten the likes of UCLA, Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina in recent memory, hasn’t won a single game against the Beavers in a dozen attempts. The school’s official athletics website doesn’t even track the last meeting between the two men's basketball programs. 

Safe to say some history will be made when the Zags head to Corvallis on Jan. 16.

The first matchup against WSU on Jan. 11 will mark the first head-to-head meeting between the two schools in Spokane since December 2014, when Kyle Wiltjer, Przemek Karnowski and Byron Wesley combined for 63 points in an 81-66 win over Josh Hawkinson and the Cougars. 

Gonzaga has won the past four matchups against WSU, including a 69-60 win in Pullman in 2015, and six of the past seven meetings overall. The two schools met 14 times in 15 seasons between 2001-2015, though since then the two Washington schools haven’t met in any capacity.

That will change for at least the next two seasons, or until WSU and Oregon State find a new conference to join for football. 

SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST

It wasn’t by accident that Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s faced off in the WCC regular-season finale in each of the past three seasons, as the Zags and Gaels have dominated the top of the league’s leaderboard for the last two decades. That will likely be the case once again in 2024-25, but the No. 1 spot won’t be decided by a head-to-head matchup on the last day of the regular season this time around.

Still, the Bulldogs’ final four WCC games shape up to be their most difficult stretch in league play: at Washington State (Feb. 19), home against Saint Mary’s (Feb. 22), at Santa Clara (Feb. 27) and at San Francisco (March 1). That’s three road games against teams ranked in the top 100 of Torvik’s projections, not to mention a juicy Senior Night game against the Gaels.

The Zags should be plenty fired up for that Feb. 22 matchup, considering there are four seniors on the roster who were on the team during last season’s gut-wrenching 64-62 loss to Saint Mary’s at The Kennel. 

Also consider that the Bulldogs won’t have back-to-back road games until the final week of the regular season.