NCAA basketball

Oklahoma City Thunder star Chet Holmgren is off the team’s injury report, setting up his potential return for Friday’s game against the Toronto Raptors.

Emmett Marquardt has made his share of jokes in the past two years about the 2023 State 3A boys basketball championship game.

“I saw the opportunity for (Dan Monson) to come back here and do something special, like he did at Gonzaga,” Frahm said. “This Eastern opportunity with Mons sparks that same kind of competitiveness in me.”

With good size, solid athleticism and a knack for getting to his favorite spots, Caleb Stone-Carrawell resembles the type of player who has given Gonzaga headaches during West Coast Conference play and through long stretches of the 2024-25 season.

Randy Bennett may be the last person Gonzaga fans want a therapy session from five days after Saint Mary’s scraped out a 62-58 win over the Bulldogs, giving the Gaels three wins in four tries over their archrival from the West Coast Conference.

Lisa Fortier has said many insightful things the past five years about Yvonne Ejim.

PULLMAN – On Saturday morning, hours before Washington State was set to take on San Francisco on the road, Nate Calmese relayed a message to athletic trainer Hailey Haukeli.

The roller coaster continues for Gonzaga basketball.

If Gonzaga coach Mark Few had his druthers, the schedule for the Zags’ and every other West Coast Conference team in action this week – and most weeks – would look different. Same for Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett.

The Zags have eight games remaining in the regular season. Half are against the top teams in the WCC: Saint Mary's, San Francisco and Santa Clara. A fifth is down the road at Washington State. It would not take much to slide onto the NCAA bubble. Their tournament profile is as wobbly as the defense that has confounded coach Mark Few for weeks.

Gonzaga’s Graham Ike and Ryan Nembhard are still in the picture for one of college basketball’s major postseason awards, as both were named Monday to the midseason watch list for the Oscar Robertson Trophy.

Another week another watch list and another weekly honor for Gonzaga graduate forward Yvonne Ejim.

The Best of the West offers fans a candid assessment of the top teams in the western third of the country – a collection that includes the Mountain West and the former Pac-12 schools now scattered across the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and West Coast Conference.

Still leading the country in multiple statistical categories, Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard has been named one of the top 10 candidates for the Bob Cousy Award, the honor given annually to the top point guard in college basketball.

DALLAS – Corey Kispert realizes maybe the only thing that any NBA player can consistently expect is change, something he’s seen plenty of during his first three seasons in Washington.

Gonzaga slipped a few spots in the NET rankings and another spot or two in most NCAA Tournament bracket projections after Saturday’s West Coast Conference loss to Saint Mary’s.

Former Gonzaga forward Zach Collins is on the move after 3½ seasons with the San Antonio Spurs.

The first basketball version of the Territorial Cup since Arizona State and Arizona joined the Big 12 unfolded in similar fashion to so many matchups when the schools were members of the Pac-12, with the Wildcats on top and tempers running hot.

MORAGA, Calif. – It has become the overriding question since Gonzaga blew a five-point lead in the final 25 seconds of regulation in an overtime loss to West Virginia in the Bahamas in late November. Can Gonzaga reach the finish line first in a close game?