NCAA basketball

It’s old home week for former Gonzaga big man Oumar Ballo at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Ballo played one season at Gonzaga, blossomed into an All-Pac-12 player in three years at Arizona with former Zags’ assistant Tommy Lloyd and he’s currently four games into his last collegiate season at Indiana. As luck would have it, No. 14 Indiana lines up against Louisville on Wednesday with a date against No. 3 Gonzaga or West Virginia on Thursday. Arizona is a potential matchup for Gonzaga or Indiana on Friday.

This season, the Zags have a roster loaded with diverse and specific skills, who might come down the floor in any game and give the opponent nightmares.

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – West Virginia’s team plane didn’t land in the Bahamas until Monday evening, but senior guard Javon Small had already crossed paths with a handful of familiar faces strolling around the Atlantis resort by the time he joined Mountaineers coach Darian DeVries and teammate Tucker DeVries for a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – Darian DeVries has faint memories of his last encounter with Gonzaga.

Gonzaga, under coach Mark Few, has won three-game holiday tournaments twice in Maui and three times in Orlando. The Zags have claimed two-game tourney titles in New York City, Ft. Myers (Florida), Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. But they haven’t won a championship in an oversized ballroom in The Bahamas. The Zags have had two shots in the Battle 4 Atlantis, coming away with 2-1 records in 2015 (third place) and 2019 (second place) at Imperial Arena.

Gonzaga remained third in the AP college basketball poll, but that could change by next week depending on how the Zags perform over three games at the Battle 4 Atlantis. GU gained some ground on No. 2 UConn in the rankings – and that was before the Huskies suffered their first loss, 99-97, to unranked Memphis in a Maui Invitational opener.

When the Battle 4 Atlantis tips off on Wednesday in The Bahamas, there's a good chance the Gonzaga men's basketball team will run into some old friends.

Claude Nembhard was on the phone recently with youngest son Ryan at the same time older son Andrew was chatting with mom Mary – a fairly regular occurrence for the family. “Andrew said he was just about to watch Ryan’s film,” the proud father said. “Ryan couldn’t have a better role model because Andrew has done this stuff at every level. When I watch them play, it’s like a mirror image.”

PULLMAN – Cedric Coward is starting to pull in the recognition.

Gonzaga's commitment to the defensive side of the ball has yielded positive results through five games for the third-ranked team in the country.

Gonzaga and West Virginia have met five times since 2012, but the Bulldogs won’t be too familiar with the version of the Mountaineers they’ll see Wednesday in an opening-round game at the Battle 4 Atlantis.

The contributions were numerous, but the Gonzaga women’s basketball team saw another special performance Sunday afternoon from fifth-year senior Yvonne Ejim.

The Idaho men’s basketball team struggled on the defensive end and fell 82-67 to Southern Utah in a nonconference game in San Diego on Saturday.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Nic McClain scored 26 points, but the Eastern Washington men’s basketball team couldn’t overcome poor shooting in a 79-68 nonconference loss to Cal Baptist on Saturday.

Some three decades ago, Quentin Hall was a young Bahamian guard who turned out to be a gem that would play a key role in establishing the foundation for the basketball phenomenon that Gonzaga would become. And the coach that recruited him – Mark Few – would become the winningest active coach in college basketball.

A few weeks ago, longtime ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla was courtside at the Toyota Center for a nonconference matchup between top-10 heavyweights Auburn and Houston – teams that currently sit No. 4 and 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Eastern Washington guard Nic McClain heads to the basket as Washington State forward LeJuan Watts defends during the first half of Thursday’s nonconference game at the Arena.

For as much as there was a reunion on the Arena court on Thursday night, there was almost as much of one off it.

Gonzaga owned the final 2 minutes and 43 seconds Thursday.