What Gonzaga's Nolan Hickman said ahead of 2025 NCAA Tournament

Bulldogs senior guard prepares to take on Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament

Gonzaga senior guard Nolan Hickman. / Gonzaga Bulldogs On SI

Nolan Hickman has won before in Wichita, Kansas, where 8-seeded Gonzaga will take on 9-seeded Georgia in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Though not for basketball reasons, Hickman went down for the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships when he was 8 years old.

"At 8 years old I won the Junior Olympics in that joint," Hickman said after Selection Sunday. "I don't mean to boast or nothing but I was fast back in the day, I was fast. 100-meter, 200 meter, I won both, so I got two gold medals in it. I still got records of it, you can go look it up. I got the fastest 100-meter time at 8 so, pretty cool I guess."

As of 2019, Hickman's 13.69-second performance in the 100-meter event was a USATF record for the age-8 and under boys division. Though it didn't lead him toward a a future as a sprinter, Hickman's quick-twitch and lightning-fast speed has proven to be effective on the basketball floor all throughout his college basketball career — which he'll look to extend Thursday when the Zags (25-8, 14-4 WCC) take on the SEC's Bulldogs (20-12, 8-10 SEC) from Intrust Bank Arena at 1:35 p.m. PST.

Here's what Hickman had to say of Gonzaga's placement in the NCAA Tournament and more after Selection Sunday.

Reaction to seeing Gonzaga on the 8-seed line:

 "I think we were all just excited. Honestly just for our names to be called on Selection Sunday is a blessing in itself so I think everybody was just excited and ready for us to get it started and knowing what our opponent is so we can come into practice tomorrow and prepare for them."

Thoughts on playing Georgia in the first round:

"They're a really talented group. Asa [Newell], he came here [on a visit] so I know a little bit about him. He's putting up terrific numbers over there at Georgia, so we have to do a lot of homework on him and double down on him when they're on offense — we'll get into all of that, I'm sure tomorrow. They got a good, talented group."

On whether he feels like Gonzaga's been "unlucky" at times this season:

"There's certain things you can control and I think that just comes with the sport of basketball itself. There's a lot of things that you just can't control, and you know the next game is coming down the pipe so, you just got to be ready for everything that this sport throws at you."

On comparing this season's team to previous ones he's been a part of over the years:

"Honestly this group reminds me a lot of last year's team. Just by how the season's been going; the must-needed wins we've been needing and everything, so I think it's just similar to last year's team. But the previous teams — we had a lot of talent on those squads so it's kind of hard to differentiate what we really got and what we don't so, I think that's the difference."

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MORE GONZAGA NEWS & ANALYSIS

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• Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard enters NCAA Tournament on a historic passing rate

• How should the NCAA Tournament selection committee seed Gonzaga? 'Lower than where they should be'

• What Gonzaga's Mark Few said after WCC championship win vs. Saint Mary's

• NCAA Tournament bound: Gonzaga beats Saint Mary’s to clinch automatic bid

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