Bracketology 2024: Gonzaga, Kentucky, and Purdue among teams with big games

No. 5 UConn (9-1) vs. No. 10 Gonzaga (7-2), Friday, Dec. 15

The weekend begins with No. 5 UConn traveling to the Pacific Northwest to take on No. 10 Gonzaga in Seattle. The Huskies enter this dog fight with the Bulldogs at 9-1 with their lone loss coming at Kansas 69-65 in the Big East/Big 12 battle. Gonzaga rebounded from a somewhat surprising loss to Washington by taking care of business against Mississippi Valley State in their last game.

To date, the only other loss Gonzaga has came in Maui to Purdue, but this game against the defending champs will be a good barometer for the Bulldogs whose strength of schedule is just 96th.

Tristen Newton, Donovan Clingan, and Alex Karaban have been really good for Dan Hurley’s club, and Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer is second on the team in scoring. The Huskies recently added some more depth when Stephon Castle returned after missing six games with a knee injury. In his two games before the injury, the 6’6 freshman averaged 14.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists. For the Bulldogs, they’ve had a strong start to the season but unlike previous Gonzaga teams, this one has failed to cash in on a real signature win so far. Their wins against power-6 schools have come against USC, UCLA, and Syracuse.

If they want to be in the discussion as a top-two seed, a win over UConn would certainly help. Conversely for the Huskies, a win here especially a convincing one keeps them in the No. 1 seed conversation.