Busting Brackets
Fansided

Gonzaga Bulldogs Prepare to Face the Nation’s Toughest Non-Conference Schedule

By Chris Godfrey

facebooktwitterreddit

The Gonzaga Bulldogs are more than just your typical mid-major. In many respects, the Zags have transcended the reality of who they are as a basketball program. The tiny Jesuit (Catholic) institution in Spokane, Washington is a national brand on the basketball (soon to be international…I’ll explain in a sec).

More from Gonzaga Bulldogs

The one factor that drags the Bulldogs back to reality is their membership in the very mid-major West Coast Conference. Outside of BYU, and occasionally St. Mary’s, the conference doesn’t offer much in the way of competition for a team that has at times been a national championship contender.

For this reason, the Gonzaga non-conference schedule is annually one of the nation’s most daunting, as the team normally travels far and wide looking for opponents that will satisfy their detractors by boosting the school’s RPI and strength of schedule.

However, this season’s out of conference slate tells an interesting story about how far the program has come. While there will still be plenty of travel on tap for Gonzaga, some of the biggest names in college basketball will be meeting the Bulldogs — in Spokane.

UCLA and Arizona, undoubtedly the two most prestigious basketball programs in the West, will both visit “The Kennel” in Spokane to play as true road teams.

Live Feed

Best memes, tweets trolling Gonzaga over another embarrassing March Madness exit
Best memes, tweets trolling Gonzaga over another embarrassing March Madness exit /

FanSided

  • Updated March Madness bracket after Sweet 16: 1 seeds bite the dustFanSided
  • March Madness 2023 picks: Predicting every Elite Eight game winnerFanSided
  • UConn vs. Gonzaga best same game parlay for NCAA Tournament Elite EightFanSided
  • CBB Twitter drags UCLA for Sweet 16 choke job vs. GonzagaFanSided
  • UCLA vs. Gonzaga, NCAA Tournament Sweet 16: How to watch, odds, predictionsGo Joe Bruin

    • The thought of either of these teams making such a trip would have been unfathomable not too long ago, but it has become clear that the Gonzaga basketball program is now ingrained in the fabric of college hoops. Not only will these elite programs be traveling to the tiny McCarthy Athletic Center, they’ll likely arrive as underdogs.

    The credit for that goes to the Bulldogs immensely talented frontcourt.

    Domantas Sabonis and Przemek Karnowski are twin towers as a duo, but the additional presence of Kyle Wiltjer makes them a skyline.

    Few’s embarrassment of riches up front is usually reserved for places like Duke or Kentucky, but he’s built a similar empire of talent in the Pacific Northwest. The Bruins and Wildcats will both show up undermanned by comparison. Again, these are things that no one would have ever imagined a sane person saying 15 years ago.

    Now the tables have turned, and we’ll be prepared to see if these Pac-12 powers can pull off an upset when the travel to visit the WCC favorites.

    UCLA visits on Dec. 5, a week before Arizona makes the trip on Dec. 12 the next Saturday.

    In addition to the marquee home games, the Zag’s traveling road show is also still set to continue. The team will open the season in Okinawa, Japan (as a part of the Armed Forces Classic) on Nov. 13 against Pittsburgh, before finishing the month in the Bahamas at the Battle 4 Atlantis.

    The Battle 4 Atlantis has quickly evolved into one of the marquee in-season tournaments in college basketball. The 2015 field is loaded, and for my money, is the best eight-team field anywhere in the country. Gonzaga will be joined by the likes of Michigan, UConn, Texas, Texas A&M, Syracuse, Washington, and for some reason…Charlotte. The Zags will open that tournament against their in-state rivals from Washington, before meeting either Texas or Texas A&M in the next round.

    Gonzaga will also host Tennessee for the Battle in Seattle event at Key Arena on Dec. 19 (that’s UCLA, Arizona, and Tennessee on consecutive Saturdays in December for those who are keeping track).

    The Zags will also step out of conference play in February to travel down to Dallas to take on Larry Brown’s SMU Mustangs in what should be a hostile environment at Moody Coliseum.

    The team’s only other true road game outside of WCC is a short early December bus ride to Pullman to face Washington State.

    By the time the team opens WCC play on Dec. 21 against Pepperdine, the Zags will have played games in three different countries.

    Maybe they should move that Washington State game to Vancouver and make it four.

    Next: A Healthy Caris Levert is an NBA Lottery Pick

    More from Busting Brackets