NEW YORK CITY – In building out the December portion of its nonconference schedule, Gonzaga might as well have pulled up a descending list of programs with multiple national championships, scrolled to the top and started making phone calls to see who was available.
NEW YORK CITY – When Dan Hurley was mulling a reported six-year, $70 million offer from the Los Angeles Lakers in June – one of the most compelling storylines of the summer, not only in college basketball but American sports at large – UConn’s basketball coach had a number of conversations that influenced and informed his final decision.
If there’s any PTSD left over from Gonzaga’s double-digit losses to UConn the past two seasons, it should be reassuring to know these will hardly be the same old Huskies lining up against the Bulldogs on Saturday night in New York City.
MOSCOW, Idaho – A rallying cry for University of Idaho football fans who have seen more seasons end in November than not has been Vandals coach Jason Eck’s declaration that December in Moscow is not for Christmas parties but for playoff football.
Gonzaga currently has a love-hate relationship with the 3-point line. The eighth-ranked Zags were on target early with their two best 3-point shooting percentages (41.9 vs. Baylor and 45.5 vs. UMass Lowell) in the season’s first three games. The last month has been rough. In the Zags’ last six games, they’ve made just 29.8%
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould spent last weekend watching the conference championship games, making mental notes of what she liked and didn’t like, what worked for fans and for TV viewers – all with an eye to December 2026.
Wells, the 39th pick in last June’s draft after averaging 12.6 points per game for the Cougars, is the latest success story for an organization that has made finding diamonds in the rough trendy.
Seven minutes after 11 a.m. on Thursday, North Carolina's football future entered Kenan Memorial Stadium donning a baby blue button-down shirt, an argyle tie – and, for once, sleeves. Welcome to the Bill Belichick era, college football edition.
MOSCOW, Idaho – The temperature was holding steady at 31 degrees. The practice field was illuminated by artificial light overhead in the evening chill, and the players, as they breathed, steamed like dragons.
Some might call it College Football Playoff season, as the 12-team tournament field is set. Others may deem it Heisman Trophy season, as the four New York-bound finalists have been revealed. But nostalgic West Coasters may see something different right now: This looks a lot like Pac-12 season. And that’s in past future tense.
This segment of Gonzaga’s schedule is typical and atypical at the same time. It always is in December as the program juggles dead week last week, which preceded finals week this week and the fast-approaching Christmas holiday break. The goal is trying to mix and match practice times to prepare for some of the biggest tests on the Zags’ non-conference schedule: Kentucky last Saturday, UConn this Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City and UCLA on Dec. 28 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
In facing No. 18 UConn on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, No. 8 Gonzaga will encounter a team that’s accounted for two of the program’s 14 losses the last two seasons, as well as a transfer guard who’s been on the winning side as much as he has the losing side in six career meetings with Mark Few and the Bulldogs.
