Is This Gonzaga’s Year?

As the college football playoffs near and hog the attention of the sports world, another fan favorite begins its new season: college basketball. While college football is nothing short of a religion in certain pockets of the country, there is no bigger sporting spectacle that captures the eyes of America like March Madness. Although there are sports fans who do not pay college basketball any attention until the calendar turns to March, the journey to get there begins well before then.

Early November brings fall leaves, colder temperatures, holiday spirit, and the start of college basketball. This month introduces the nation to hyped-up freshmen, promising transfers, 5th-year seniors chasing a national title, and plenty of storylines in between. While “Blue Blood” programs have dominated the sport throughout the years, another small school in the Pacific Northwest is still chasing its first championship: Gonzaga University.

Even though Gonzaga has yet to cross the finish line, they have had plenty to be proud of throughout the last 25 years. After Mark Few took over the program in 1999, Gonzaga steadily evolved from a Cinderella mid-major program to a dominant powerhouse year after year. They have reached at least the Sweet 16 nine years in a row, including two national championship appearances. Few has had plenty of great teams over the years, but some speculate that the 2024-2025 roster could be one of his best. Is this the year for Gonzaga to cross the finish line?

The 2024-2025 Gonzaga team has certainly one of the most experienced and deep rotations that Mark Few has employed in recent memory. His starting lineup includes five seniors: Ryan Nembhard, Nolan Hickman, Kalif Battle (6th year), Michael Ajayi, and Graham Ike (5th year). He also has senior Ben Gregg coming off the bench, along with two sophomores Braden Huff and Dusty Stromer. This 8-man rotation includes a balanced mix of homegrown talent and highly-touted transfers. Additionally, six of the eight players are returning from last year’s rotation. Especially early in a college basketball season, the importance of a team’s continuity cannot be understated. 

Gonzaga opened the season with a no. 6 preseason AP Poll ranking. Their first game was a “neutral-site” matchup against no. 8 Baylor at the Spokane Arena, located a mile away from campus. What was anticipated to be a tightly contested contest turned into a Gonzaga bloodbath very quickly, ending with a final score of 101-63. The Bulldogs followed with a hard-fought home win against Arizona State and an impressive road victory over San Diego State. They added on two more wins in a couple of tune-up games against UMass Lowell and Long Beach State.

This past week, Gonzaga participated in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis tournament on Paradise Island in The Bahamas. They opened the tournament rather disappointingly with an overtime loss against West Virginia. Up 75-70 with 20 seconds left in regulation, Gonzaga allowed WVU to send the game to overtime with poor perimeter defense and a horrendous turnover that gifted the tying bucket. The favorites of the tourney were eliminated from championship contention on day one. Luckily for the Zags, they didn’t have much time to dwell on the sting of the loss. They followed their poor showing with two impressive wins over no. 14 Indiana and Davidson in consecutive days. Even though they opened their trip to paradise with a frustrating performance, it was nice to see the Bulldogs get back to their brand of basketball quickly.

Gonzaga will face two more fierce opponents over the next two weeks. They will take a short flight to Seattle to tackle top-ten ranked Kentucky before UConn awaits them at Madison Square Garden. Even though the Huskies lost all three contests in the Maui Invitational, they are still the back-to-back reigning champions for a reason. These two games will be very telling for where this Gonzaga team currently stands. Although a long season still awaits them, there won’t be many more chances to prove themselves as they play through their lighter WCC schedule.

When a team gets to March, quite literally anything can happen. Upsets, cinderellas, disappointments, magical runs…anything. That is the beauty of this sport. Building a great foundation over the summer and continuously improving throughout the regular season will only help your chances when the lights become brighter. 

I believe this Gonzaga team has a phenomenal chance of making a deep run in the tournament and claiming its first National Title in school history. Ryan Nembhard is arguably the best point guard in the country right now, averaging almost 11 assists through the first eight games. They have two great scoring big men in Graham Ike and Braden Huff, each averaging over 13 PPG. Nolan Hickman, in his 4th year at Gonzaga, is shooting over 46% from three. Kalif Battle, the team’s most natural scorer, has proven that he can ignite the offense with 8-10 straight points. Their defensive energy and communication have been very consistent thus far, which not many Zag teams have had this early in the season.

There are other talented teams in college basketball this season as well, including no.1 Kansas, Iowa State, Auburn, Tennessee, and several others. The Bulldogs have their work cut out for them, but I am confident they will be up to the task. While playing into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for nine consecutive years is surely impressive, no one will remember their streak unless they win it all. Will this be Gonzaga’s year? 

Only time will tell…