Welcome to the latest installment of the Hotline’s Pac-12 men’s basketball power rankings, our weekly assessment of a conference that doesn’t exist (yet) using results, analytics and a dash of common sense. The power rankings will be published each Monday through the end of the regular season.
Our Gonzaga rewind usually focuses on the team’s most recent game, but it’s probably worth reviewing the week at large for Mark Few’s group, which navigated a couple of close calls to pocket its NCAA-leading 16th win Sunday evening at McCarthey Athletic Center.
The Associated Press took a week off between releasing its week eight and week 10 college basketball polls. Gonzaga squeezed in a short holiday break before tackling a four-game, eight-day span with a 4-0 record to open West Coast Conference play. That didn’t resonate with AP voters, who dropped the Zags (16-1) from No. 7 to No. 8 in Monday’s latest rankings.
Mark Few shook up his starting lineup for the eighth time this season Sunday night against Loyola Marymount, but the contributions No. 7 Gonzaga got from a deep bench unit made the biggest difference in an 82-47 runaway victory over the visiting Lions.
Seventeen games into the season, it can be difficult to distinguish between Gonzaga’s starting lineup and bench unit. The seventh-ranked Zags haven’t been so concerned about who’s in the first five, as long as they get to the right five throughout the course of the game.
Three takeaways at the buzzer from Gonzaga’s 82-47 win over Loyola Marymount on Sunday at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Fogle gets first start The Zags shook up their starting lineup again – they’ve had a different first five in each …
Gonzaga forward Jalen Warley was explaining the concept of “kills,” symbolic of three straight defensive stops. It was a relevant topic Sunday night after the seventh-ranked Zags stifled Loyola Marymount 82-47 at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Asked if coaches mentioned …
Jan Vide didn’t see any floor time for UCLA when Gonzaga matched up with the Bruins in the 2023 Maui Invitational. Vide was part of Loyola Marymount’s rotation in two West Coast Conference games against the Zags last season, but totaled just 12 points in those contests.
Gonzaga had just wrapped up a tense overtime win against a physical, experienced, defensive-minded Seattle U team when coach Mark Few provided a glimpse of what’s on deck for the seventh-ranked Zags when they resume West Coast Conference play Sunday.
If it felt strange watching No. 7 Gonzaga play an overtime game at McCarthey Athletic Center Friday night against Seattle U, that’s probably because it’s happened just two other times since the venue opened in 2004.
Fifteen minutes after they were jointly named the most valuable players by a PA announcer, Tyon Grant-Foster, Graham Ike and Braden Huff arrived together at a postgame press conference together and lowered their bodies into folding chairs.
Tyon Grant-Foster and Graham Ike didn’t start for seventh-ranked Gonzaga on Friday, but they were happy to play the role of finisher in a tense 80-72 overtime victory over Seattle U at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
The Zags’ defense, three days after yielding 93 points to San Diego, wasn’t perfect against the Redhawks, but it kept GU within striking distance until the offense found its stride in the second half and overtime.
Three takeaways at the buzzer of Gonzaga’s 80-72 overtime win over Seattle U on Friday at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Big three come up big Braden Huff, Graham Ike and Tyon Grant-Foster were pretty much Gonzaga’s only reliable point producers, …
During WCC media day interviews last October, Junseok Yeo’s new teammates at Seattle U provided a description of the forward that lined up almost exactly with the one Mark Few gave of his former player Tuesday night anticipating Friday’s matchup against the Redhawks at McCarthey Athletic Center.
With their West Coast Conference farewell tour underway, maybe it’s time to revisit Gonzaga’s welcome-to-the-WCC moment. Serendipity makes it almost mandatory. For the Bulldogs’ first game of 2026 on Friday evening, a scheduler with a sense of poetry plugged in …
It’s the start of a new year, but Seattle U and Chris Victor have already spent two months carrying out many of the resolutions they set for themselves before the college basketball season started.
Tyon Grant-Foster and Seattle U are both new to the West Coast Conference, but they’re hardly new to each other. The first-year Gonzaga wing may be happy to see the Redhawks on Friday at McCarthey Athletic Center (6 p.m., KHQ/ESPN+), …
Gonzaga vs. Santa Clara, Jan. 8
Gametime: 8:30 p.m.
Location: McCarthey Athletic Center
On TV: ESPN2
On Radio: 590-AM