Gonzaga vs UConn: 2024-25 College basketball game preview, TV schedule

Gonzaga and UConn battle in New York City as part of the Hall of Fame Series in a major matchup; can the Bulldogs bounce back after a recent defeat or do the Huskies get their season on track with a major statement?

TV schedule: Saturday, December 14, 8:00 pm ET. FOX

Arena: Madison Square Garden in New York, New York

On the surface, Gonzaga (7-2) is off to another fast start and should be national contenders yet again this season. They blew out Baylor on opening night and have scored impressive wins over Indiana and San Diego State, but there have been a few missteps. They lost a pair of overtime games, faltering in a winnable matchup with West Virginia before blowing a 16-point halftime lead to Kentucky last weekend. They’ll head to New York with a chance to prove they belong again.

The Bulldogs are getting great contributions from Graham Ike (15.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg), who has certainly established himself as the new prominent frontcourt weapon for this program. Former Arkansas guard Khalif Battle (13.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg) has settled in nicely at Gonzaga and hasn’t missed a free throw in nine games. The shooting from Nolan Hickman (11.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg) has been prominent and he’s certainly a big part of those early wins for the Bulldogs, while Ryan Nembhard (10.9 ppg, 10.7 apg) is among the best point guards in the country.

That loss to Kentucky saw Gonzaga slide to #8 in the AP Top 25, though they still sit 3rd in KenPom and 4th in the NET rankings as a result of their great start. The Bulldogs again boast one of the top offenses in the nation and have put up at least 80 points in all of their games to date. The long-range shooting really doomed them against the Wildcats last weekend, though the interior offense has delivered for the most part this season, especially from Ike and Braden Huff.

After disaster in Maui, Connecticut (7-3) has looked a lot more like the team we expected in recent weeks. The Huskies lost all three games they played at the Maui Invitational but have had a strong response back on the mainland, beating Baylor and then Texas on the road last week to get back into the national spotlight. Will this trend continue with a third-straight difficult matchup?

The Huskies are glad to have a healthy Alex Karaban (16.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 3.4 apg), as the only returning starter from last year’s championship squad. He’s a major part of this frontcourt, though the contributions from freshman Liam McNeeley (12.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg) have been significant to open his collegiate career. This has been a solid shooting team, with Solo Ball (12.9 ppg) sitting at 46% from outside the arc and really establishing himself in his sophomore year.

Now back up to #18 in the AP Top 25, UConn sits 12th in KenPom and 21st in the NET, with their overall resume still battered by that performance in Maui. The Huskies really faltered on defense in all three of those losses, allowing a lot of made shots to Memphis, Colorado, and Dayton that week. However, the offense continues to roll, the team has gotten healthier and more confident, and good things could be in store in the near future.

When this matchup was unveiled before the season began, few likely expected to see 5 combined losses between these two teams. Gonzaga has already shown that they’re the real deal; they’ve just had a few missteps along the way. UConn on the other hand threw a lot of new pieces into the fold and despite their shaky play are looking like a national contender again this week.

This boils down to how Karaban and the young frontcourt handle Gonzaga’s strong offensive push. The battles between Ike and those Huskies will be interesting to see develop, though clearly, it’s a matter of which team can establish the paint and open up those long-range opportunities. The Bulldogs didn’t get those shots to fall against Kentucky while UConn has been vulnerable from there. That right there is the recipe to a Gonzaga victory, though Karaban and company could certainly power out a different result.

Prediction: Gonzaga 82, Connecticut 78