SPOKANE, Wash. – Gonzaga men’s basketball head coach Mark Few announced his team’s 15-game non-conference schedule for the upcoming season Tuesday.
The non-conference slate features nine games inside the McCarthey Athletic Center. The Zags face a potential of seven teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2017-18.
Gonzaga will play on a pair of neutral courts, with a matchup against last year’s SEC champion Tennessee in Talking Stick Arena in Phoenix, Ariz., on Dec. 9. The Bulldogs are also a participant in this year’s historic Maui Invitational.
After an exhibition with Central Washington at the McCarthey Athletic Center on Nov. 1, the Zags open the regular season at home versus Idaho State on Nov. 6. With a new rule change, teams can begin their seasons on Nov. 6. It’s the earliest regular season game Gonzaga has played since records date back to the 1958-59 slate.
Idaho State is coming off of a 14-16 season, and a seventh-place finish in the Big Sky Conference at 9-9 in league play. The Bengals’ top two scorers, Brandon Boyd and Jared Stutzman, return this season. Both averaged 14.9 points per game last season. Boyd was named the conference’s Top Reserve, while Stutzman was named third team All-Big Sky.
For the second straight season, GU hosts Texas Southern on Nov. 10. The matchup is on-campus game for the Maui Invitational. The Bulldogs have won all three meetings between the programs, including last season’s 97-69 win in Spokane. Josh Perkins led five Zags double-digit scorers with 20 points in the season-opening victory. Texas Southern won the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament and finished the year in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season.
On Nov. 15, Gonzaga welcomes Texas A&M to Spokane for the first time ever. This will be the first meeting in a home-and-home series between the programs. The Zags make a trip to Texas A&M’s Reed Arena during the fall of 2019. The Aggies won 22 games and advanced to the Sweet 16, after going 9-9 in the SEC, last season. Texas A&M and Gonzaga have met just once on the hardwood, a 62-61 Aggie win over GU on Nov. 26, 2015, during the semifinals of the Battle4Atlantis.
The 35th edition of the nation’s premier early season tournament, the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, will take place Nov. 19-21 at the Lahaina Civic Center on the island of Maui. This year’s eight team field has been tabbed the best-ever in the history of the event. The Bulldogs open the event against Illinois. The Illini went 14-18 in Brad Underwood’s first season as head coach. Trent Frazier is back after being named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team and honorable mention All-Big Ten. He averaged 12.5 points per game, the highest scoring average by an Illini freshman in the last 19 years.
Gonzaga will face Arizona or Iowa State in the second game of the Maui Invitational on Nov. 20. Auburn, Duke, San Diego State and Xavier are on the other side of the bracket.
North Dakota State comes to the McCarthey Athletic Center on Nov. 26. The Bulldogs have won both of the previous meetings with NDSU, with the latest coming in the 2015 NCAA Tournament in Seattle, 86-76. Tyson Ward returns for his junior season after averaging 11.8 points per game in 2017-18.
The Zags begin a daunting four-game stretch at Creighton on Dec. 1. GU pulled away from the Bluejays last season, 91-74, in Spokane. Creighton finished the season in the NCAA Tournament with 21 wins. CenturyLink Center Omaha seats 17,352 and the Bluejays averaged 17,000 fans per game last season, which ranked fifth in the nation.
On Dec. 5, Washington returns to Spokane. The Huskies won 21 games in 2017-18, and ended their season in the second round of the NIT. Washington returns all five starters, including four that averaged double-digit scoring. Last season, Mike Hopkins was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year, Matisse Thybulle was tabbed the league’s Defensive Player of the Year and Noah Dickerson was a Pac-12 First Team selection. Gonzaga has won 11 of the last 12 meetings between the programs, including the last four. Last season, the Bulldogs won at Washington in front of a sold-out crowd, 97-70. Zach Norvell Jr. scored 21 points, while Perkins added 14, and Killian Tillie and Rui Hachimura combined for 23 points.
The Zags return to Phoenix, Ariz., where the program has had many memorable moments on Dec. 9, for a matchup with a trendy Top-10 preseason pick Tennessee. Gonzaga and the Vols meet in the inaugural Jerry Colangelo Classic. The one-day, doubleheader event—which also features a matchup between Nevada and Grand Canyon—is organized by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, presented by Citi and will take place at Talking Stick Resort Arena, home of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.
This will be the sixth all-time meeting between Tennessee and GU (all coming since 2007) and the fifth at a neutral site. Gonzaga leads the series, 4-1. Tennessee is coming off a 26-9 campaign that saw the Volunteers win the SEC Championship and earn a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. All five starters—and the top six scorers—from that team return this season.
The Bulldogs make their first ever trip to the University of North Carolina on Dec. 15. The matchup inside the Dean E. Smith Center features the top two winningest active coaches, Mark Few and Roy Williams. The Tar Heels and Bulldogs have played three times – in Madison Square Garden in the 2006 pre-season NIT, in the 2009 NCAA South Region Sweet 16 in Memphis, and in 2017 in Phoenix in the NCAA championship game. UNC will make a return trip to Spokane in 2019 to complete the home-and-home series.
Gonzaga ends the non-conference schedule with four home games. Texas-Arlington and Denver come to the McCarthey Athletic Center on Dec. 18 and 21. UTA has won at least 20 games in each of the last three seasons, including 21 in 2017-18. It’s the second all-time meeting between the Zags and Mavericks. Texas-Arlington beat GU, 95-87, in double overtime in the 1992 UAB Classic. Denver and Gonzaga also meet for the second time. The Bulldogs cruised to a 90-58 win over the Pioneers in Spokane in 2003.
North Alabama and CSU Bakersfield close the non-conference slate on Dec. 28 and 31. North Alabama will be in its first season under new head coach Tony Pujol, who came to UNA after most recent stints as an assistant coach at Wyoming and Alabama. The 2018-19 season will be the first as a Div. I institution. Bakersfield returns its top three scorers from last season.
