NCAA basketball

Several stats tell the tale of Gonzaga’s 89-77 victory over Santa Clara late Thursday night, including Graham Ike’s 34 points, GU’s 57.6% shooting from the field and a decisive 17-0 spurt midway through the second half. Not to be overlooked: Santa Clara’s 7 of 26 showing behind the 3-point arc.

Gonzaga’s Graham Ike is still being one of considered for one of college basketball’s most prestigious postseason honors.

At the conclusion of Dan Monson’s first year as Eastern Washington’s head men’s basketball coach, one of the team’s glaring needs was more size at forward.

Christian Hammond committed to Santa Clara in October 2022. The 6-foot-4 guard officially joined Herb Sendek’s program in 2023-24, but injuries limited him to only 19 games as a freshman. With a deep group of guards and wings on Santa Clara’s roster in 2024-25, extended playing time appeared unlikely for Hammond, so the Colorado native elected to redshirt, chalking the decision up to “me just doing my part.”

Through one week, the West Coast Conference has had some interesting results. One thing is clear: The transfer portal has allowed some parity to develop.

Gonzaga’s next challenge in the West Coast Conference comes from a team based in the San Francisco Bay Area that’s relied on a distinct playing style to record multiple wins over Mark Few’s team the last two seasons.

Before this season, Joddie Gleason wasn’t entirely sure just how much Elyn Bowers was going to play for the Eastern Washington women’s basketball team this season.

Richard Fox, former GU center and current analyst on Zags’ telecasts on KHQ and SWX, and yours truly broke down what could be a high-scoring contest Thursday at the McCarthey Athletic Center. We also discussed Gonzaga’s ever-changing starting lineups and rotations in the latest Zags Insiders Podcast.

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.

The slyest grin of all time crossed the face of Jerone Morton, the Washington State guard who knew what he had just gotten away with. As he jogged backward on defense, right after he bailed out his team with a fadeaway jumper to beat the shot clock in Sunday’s game against Oregon State, he pointed at coach David Riley, who didn’t just smile back.

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.

SEATTLE – Washington State center Alex Covill had a dominant performance in the paint during the best game of her career, leading the Cougars to a 73-69 win over Seattle U on Sunday in a West Coast Conference college women’s basketball game at Redhawk Center.

The Gonzaga women’s basketball team struggled to find consistent offensive flow Sunday afternoon.

Three takeaways at the buzzer from Gonzaga’s 82-47 win over Loyola Marymount on Sunday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Gonzaga forward Jalen Warley was explaining the concept of “kills,” symbolic of three straight defensive stops.

It took the Eastern Washington women’s basketball team about a half to adjust to the physicality of Idaho on Saturday at Reese Court in Cheney.