Pull up the 68-team bracket from last year’s NCAA Tournament and you’ll find at least seven teams Gonzaga will encounter throughout another daunting nonconference schedule.
Through various reports and announcements, Gonzaga fans have probably been able to piece together the nonconference schedule over the last handful of months, but the school released the full 13-game slate on Wednesday morning.
Depending who the Zags draw in the final game of the Las Vegas-based Players Era Festival, Mark Few’s team could face as many as eight teams that played in March Madness last season. Seven of Gonzaga’s nonconference foes finished inside the top 75 of the NCAA NET rankings, with five of those ending the season in the top 30. Four teams appeared in ESPN’s latest way-too-early preseason rankings.
After opening with their annual Kraziness in the Kennel showcase at 4 p.m. on Oct. 4, the Zags will welcome NAIA opponent Western Oregon for their lone preseason exhibition. WOU’s first-year coach Ryan Orton is the son of Doug Orton, who coached GU’s Mark Few at Creswell High in the late 1970’s and early 1980s.
The Zags are only leaving the Pacific time zone once during the nonconference schedule and won’t have to leave Spokane for their first three games, hosting SWAC opponent Texas Southern in the season opener on Nov. 3.
Gonzaga’s first marquee nonleague date against an NCAA Tournament team will be Nov. 8, when the Zags take on Oklahoma at the Arena. It’ll be GU’s third nonleague game at the downtown venue in the last four years after routing Baylor in the 2024-25 opener and beating Kentucky during the 2022-23 season. Porter Moser loses a number of key starters from last year’s Oklahoma team that lost to UConn in an NCAA Tournament opener, but the Sooners added quality transfers, including Alabama’s Derrion Reid and Miami’s Nijel Pack.
The next six days will be busy for Gonzaga, which hosts Greg McDermott and Creighton on Nov. 11 in the first meeting between the Zags and Bluejays since the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Creighton, a projected Top 25 team in some polls, loses defensive stalwart Ryan Kalkbrenner and sharpshooting Steven Ashworth, but brings in a nine-man transfer class headlined by Iowa standouts Owen Freeman and Josh Dix.
Three days after the Creighton matchup, the Zags will be on the road to face Arizona State in a Nov. 14 game at Desert Financial Arena. The second game of a home-and-home series with the Sun Devils will also be a Homecoming for Gonzaga’s Adam Miller, who spent the last two years in Tempe. In replacing all five starters, ASU coach Bobby Hurley reloaded his roster by adding former Pepperdine and Pacific point guard Moe Odum and bringing in Marcus Adams Jr., a former Gonzaga signee who never played for Few’s program before transferring to BYU and then Cal State Northridge.
Gonzaga briefly returns home to face Southern Utah on Nov. 17 before traveling to the second annual Players Era tournament, where 18 teams will compete over three days at MGM Grand Garden Arena and Michelob Ultra Arena in Vegas. Teams are guaranteed $1 million in NIL revenue for participating in the event, with an additional $1 million prize going to the champion.
The Zags’ stint in Vegas will start against another projected Top 25 team, Alabama, at 6:30 p.m. (TNT) on Nov. 24 at MGM Grand Garden Arena. GU will be at the same venue 24 hours later to play Maryland at 6:30 p.m. (TruTV). The Zags could play one of 15 teams on the final day of the tournament: Rutgers, Tennessee, Creighton, Baylor, Kansas, Notre Dame, St. John’s, Iowa State, Houston, Syracuse, Oregon, Michigan, San Diego State or UNLV.
After an eight-day layoff, Gonzaga will be back on the court Dec. 5 to face Kentucky at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, home of the NHL’s Predators. Gonzaga opened the six-year series with a pair of wins over Kentucky, but the Wildcats overcame a double-digit deficit last season to stun the Zags in Seattle. Second-year coach Mark Pope brings back guard Otega Oweh, a preseason All-American candidate, and could roll out a starting lineup featuring transfers Denzel Aberdeen (Florida), Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State), Jaland Lowe (Pitt) and Mouhamed Dioubate (Alabama).
Gonzaga’s home nonconference schedule concludes with games against North Florida (Dec. 7) and Campbell (Dec. 17). Wedged between those will be a trip to Seattle to play fellow West Coast power UCLA on Dec. 13 at Climate Pledge Arena. The Zags will be seeking their first win at the downtown Seattle venue after losses to Alabama, UConn and Kentucky, while also trying to avenge last year’s nonconference loss to the Bruins, who return three starters and add one of the nation’s top transfers in New Mexico point guard Donovan Dent.
The nonleague slate culminates with a Dec. 21 neutral-site game against Oregon at the Moda Center in Portland. Titled the Northwest Elite Showdown, the game will mark the third time Gonzaga’s Few has matched up against his alma mater, but the first time he’s scheduled Oregon in a non-tournament format. After losing to Arizona in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32, the Ducks bring back two veteran players and former Zag recruits in guard Jackson Shelstad and big man Nate Bittle.
Outside of GU’s opening games at the Players Era tournament, tipoff times and television broadcast information for all other nonconference contests have yet to be released.
