Report: Gonzaga hosts Long Beach State as part of 2024-25 nonconference schedule

Bulldogs welcome Long Beach State to Spokane on Nov. 20

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

As the 2024-25 college basketball season draws nearer, the Gonzaga men’s basketball program is putting the final touches on its nonconference schedule.

According to college basketball insider Rocco Miller, the Bulldogs filled one of the three remaining slots on their regular season slate with a home matchup on Nov. 20 against Long Beach State, which is coming off an NCAA Tournament berth under former Gonzaga head coach Dan Monson. 

Monson, now at the helm of the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team, helped guide the Beach to the NCAA Tournament five days after the school told him that he would be fired as the head coach. After winning the Big West Conference Tournament to secure the league’s automatic bid, Long Beach State danced for the second time in Monson’s 17 years of leadership. As a 15-seed, Monson’s crew put up a fight before eventually bowing out to 2-seed Arizona, 85-65, in the first round. 

New head coach Chris Acker, formerly an assistant at San Diego State, returned three players from that squad, though none of them played more than 180 minutes last season under Monson. Four of the top five scorers departed via the transfer portal while leading scorer Marcus Tsoshonis graduated this past spring, leaving a lot of holes for Acker and the coaching staff to fill over the offseason.

Devin Askew, a former four-star Kentucky recruit in 2022, transferred in after two injury-riddled seasons with Cal, along with Pacific transfer Cam Denson, Nebraska transfer Ramel Loyd Jr. and Tj Wainwright from Robert Morris. The Beach ranks 270th in Bart Torvik’s 2024-25 projections after coming in at No. 191 to end the 2023-24 campaign.

As of now, the Nov. 20 matchup is the third known home game on Gonzaga’s nonleague schedule. It’ll also host Arizona State as part of a home-and-home series on Nov. 10 before hosting Nicholls State in a tune-up on Dec. 18.

NCAA rules state a team can play up to 31 games (28 regular season plus three in-season tournament games, for example) before its conference tournament. When factoring in an 18-game West Coast Conference schedule, the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament (three games) and a slew of other high-profile nonleague games, the Bulldogs have 29 games on their calendar currently.

The only true road game in November and December is a trip down to the Viejas Arena to take on San Diego State on Nov. 18. After hosting Long Beach State, it's down to the Bahamas for a matchup with West Virginia (Nov. 27) in a tournament that also features Indiana, Arizona and Louisville. The Zags could draw the Hoosiers or Cardinals on day two, with a potential clash against the Wildcats and Tommy Lloyd looming in the championship game.

Gonzaga also faces Kentucky in Seattle on Dec. 7, followed by a game at Madison Square Garden against back-to-back champion UConn (Dec. 14) and a matchup against West Coast rival UCLA at the newly built Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California (Dec. 28). WCC play tips off Dec. 30 on the road at Pepperdine.