What we know about Gonzaga’s 2024-25 schedule

Storylines, big games to circle and much more from Gonzaga's 2024-25 schedule

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

From polls and rankings created by humans and computers to just about every sportsbook in casinos across the country, the greater college basketball world has high expectations of the Gonzaga Bulldogs heading into the 2024-25 season.

Much of that has to do with the talent Mark Few has assembled in Spokane. Seven of the top eight scorers from last season’s Sweet 16 team are back for likely another deep NCAA Tournament run, including four of the five starters — Ryan Nembhard, Nolan Hickman, Ben Gregg and Graham Ike — while a batch of newcomers via the transfer portal look to round out the edges. Michael Ajayi (Pepperdine), Khalif Battle (Arkansas) and Emmanuel Innocenti (Tarleton State) all figure to play some sort of role in the rotation.

Along with rising sophomores Braden Huff, Dusty Stromer and Jun Seok Yeo — as well as 7-foot freshman Ismaila Diagne — the Zags appear to be a preseason top-10 team on paper. Of course, all the pieces have to come together on the court for that prediction to hold true during the regular season, which features plenty of high-profile nonconference matchups that should provide worthy tests for the Bulldogs as they prepare for the rigors that come in the postseason.

While having talent is important, a team’s resume is also judged by its strength of schedule. It won’t be long until the phrase “NET rankings” dominates the sport’s discourse and thus the quality of every high-major program’s nonleague slate will be put under the microscope, including the Zags. Given the West Coast Conference has put together an 18-game schedule for its members this season, there’s a greater emphasis on scheduling high-quality opponents in November and December with even fewer opportunities than in years past now that conference realignment has made it more challenging to schedule games with power conference programs.

With the WCC slate locked in, here is what we know about Gonzaga’s 2024-25 schedule.

IT’S LOADED

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: there are a lot of games to circle on the calendar this winter, as has been the case over the past few seasons now, with many of them taking place in neutral site locations.

The Battle 4 Atlantis tournament (Nov. 27-29) is headlined by Arizona, Indiana and Louisville — three programs with serious NCAA Tournament aspirations — in addition to three other power conference programs in Oklahoma, Providence and West Virginia. Perhaps not as spicy as the 2023 Maui Invitational, but nonetheless there will be opportunities to pick up some quality wins depending on how the bracket shapes out.

December might pose an even more challenging stretch. First, a bout against Kentucky in Seattle (Dec. 7) followed by a cross-country trip to Madison Square Garden for a potential top-10 matchup against reigning back-to-back champion UConn (Dec. 14). Two weeks later, the Bulldogs head to Inglewood, California, to renew their rivalry with UCLA (Dec. 28).

The Wildcats, Huskies and Bruins will all likely count as Quad 1 opponents once the first NET rankings are released midway through the season, as would the Hoosiers and Arizona based on Bart Torvik’s 2024-25 projections. Not to mention both the home game against Arizona State (No. 67 on Torvik) on Nov. 10 and the matchup at San Diego State (No. 77) on Nov. 18 could count toward Gonzaga’s Quad 2 record. 

FAVORABLE WCC SLATE

The Bulldogs caught a couple of breaks in their league schedule, especially when considering that they don’t have back-to-back road games until the final week of the regular season (all other WCC programs have at least two stretches of back-to-back road games) and three of their first four conference foes rank outside of the top 200 of Torvik’s projections. The latter is slightly counteracted by a tough four-game stretch to close the season before the conference tournament.

Still, the Bulldogs will only see two teams in Torvik’s top 100 (Washington State and Santa Clara) in the first month of their WCC schedule. Unfortunately for students, most of them will likely be home on winter break when the Cougars come to town on Jan. 11, which takes place two days before the spring semester starts. Perhaps arrangements can be made with university housing if the WSU game isn’t made into a “Kennel Campout” event.

The lighter half of the schedule is offset by a much more difficult road stretch in late February, as the Zags will face the Cougars (Feb. 19), Broncos  (Feb. 27) and Dons (March 1) in a 10-day stretch that also includes a bout against Saint Mary’s at home for what will likely be Senior Night (Feb. 22.)

OLD FACES IN NEW PLACES

Given the sheer amount of player and coaching movement this offseason, it shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise that the Bulldogs will run into a few familiar faces sporting a different jersey (or team polo) in 2024-25.

For the second consecutive season, Gonzaga will run into former five-star recruit Dominick Harris, now with UCLA, after the 6-foot-3 guard was with WCC rival Loyola Marymount last season. Harris struggled in his return to Spokane, as he shot 4-of-13 from the field and had four turnovers in a resounding 92-58 win for the home team. A knee injury forced Harris to sit out LMU’s home game against the Bulldogs two weeks later.

Four-star recruit Trent Perry, who once considered Gonzaga during his recruitment, instead chose the Bruins over the Bulldogs and USC as well.

Former WCC foes Aidan Mahaney (UConn) and McKinney III (SDSU) will get to face the Zags while wearing different threads than before. Mahaney, a two-time All-WCC selection, had a habit of saving his best performances for Gonzaga during his two seasons with Saint Mary’s.

Mark Pope, heading into his first season at the helm of Kentucky, will have another crack at taking down the Bulldogs after trying to do so as the head coach of BYU from 2020-2023. Pope managed to dethrone Gonzaga once in the 2019-20 campaign, though he lost the next seven head-to-head matchups before the Cougars left the WCC for the Big 12 in 2023.

Those are just a few storylines to look out for during the 2024-25 campaign, with arguably the most tantalizing one being a potential matchup with Tommy Lloyd and Arizona in the Bahamas. Few doesn’t prefer to coach against his former assistants, though he might not have a say in the matter even if the Bulldogs and Wildcats are on opposite sides of the tournament bracket and eventually meet in the championship game.

THERE'S STILL ROOM FOR MORE

Per NCAA rules, teams can play up to 28 regular season games plus three in-season tournament games prior to its conference tournament. That means the Zags have four open slots to fill in their nonconference schedule. Given that there are only two home games slated to take place between Nov. 10 and Dec. 28, it would be safe to assume there won't be many more true road games added to the schedule.

That said, it remains to be seen which team(s) are available and have an interest in coming to Spokane for a nonleague game against a probable top-10 team. History would indicate that Gonzaga will have to call up more Quad 4/Quad 3-caliber opponents to fill its remaining slots. Over the past three seasons, the Bulldogs have averaged more than five standalone games against Quad 4 foes; as of now, Nicholls State (Dec. 18) is the only game on the nonleague schedule projected to fit that criteria.

Also, consider the potential for scrimmages and exhibitions against non-Division-I schools. A bylaw in the NCAA's competition rule states that teams are permitted to play in up to two closed preseason practice scrimmages or exhibition contests — or a combination of the two — against a non-Division I school. Last season, Gonzaga had a closed-door scrimmage against Baylor and an open exhibition against Lewis-Clark State before its season opener against Yale.