No. 8 Gonzaga looking to turn fortunes at Climate Pledge Arena against No. 25 UCLA

SEATTLE – Good things have generally come from Gonzaga’s matchups with UCLA, although fans might prefer to skip over the last 40 minutes of nonconference action between the Zags and Bruins.

Likewise, Mark Few’s teams have a strong track record in Seattle – 17-10 when you factor in NCAA Tournament matchups (3-1), true road contests at Washington (5-2) and one-off games at Key Arena/Climate Pledge Arena (9-7) – but nobody’s in a hurry to revisit the last four trips to the Emerald City.

In other words, the eighth-ranked Zags (9-1) have a few different demons to exorcise Saturday when they face the 25th-ranked Bruins (7-2) in a late-night, quasi-neutral game at Climate Pledge Arena.

Gonzaga’s ongoing rivalry with UCLA has delivered can’t-miss matchups, iconic moments and generational finishes over the past two decades. The possibility of another all-time classic could convince fans in the Eastern time zone to readjust sleep schedules to catch an 8:30 p.m. (ESPN) tipoff in downtown Seattle, or persuade anyone out West to stay awake through the final buzzer.

Gonzaga fans have shown up en masse to the three games at Climate Pledge Arena since the building opened in 2021, snapping up tickets to recreate the home-court advantage that usually spurs the Zags on to huge scoring runs and deflates the opponent, often to the point of no return.

Only it didn’t deflate Alabama in 2021, when the Crimson Tide outlasted Chet Holmgren, Drew Timme and Andrew Nembhard for a 91-82 win at Climate Pledge three months before Few’s team nabbed a No. 1 overall seed at the NCAA Tournament. It didn’t hinder UConn in 2023, when the Huskies beat the Zags in convincing fashion, 76-63, four months before Dan Hurley’s group won its second straight national title. It didn’t even impact Kentucky last season when the Wildcats went down 18 points in the second half, only to rally for a 90-89 overtime victory.

Current Gonzaga players can’t be held responsible for previous shortcomings – none were on the roster for the Alabama game and only Graham Ike and Braden Huff played in the UConn matchup – but they’re all eager to change the tenor of the conversation around their Climate Pledge history and wouldn’t mind getting back on track against UCLA, either.

“Super excited. UCLA-Gonzaga, it’s always a fun one,” Huff said. “Ready to get a win in Seattle. Had some ones we’ve kind of let slip there, so just to be able to go down there and play UCLA, it’ll be a fun one and we’re excited to compete.”

If Gonzaga’s history at Climate Pledge fills one side of a hypothetical bulletin board, last year’s narrow loss against UCLA might consume the other.

During a string of one-possession losses to high-major opponents – a stretch that included the aforementioned Kentucky game – the Zags fell 65-62 to UCLA at the newly-built Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., ending a four-game winning streak against the Bruins that dated back to Jalen Suggs’ iconic overtime buzzer-beater in the 2021 Final Four.

The 2025-26 Zags have successfully stayed clear of one-possession games this season, and single-digit games for that matter.

After Sunday’s 109-58 decision against North Florida, Gonzaga’s wins are coming by an average margin of 34 points. The only blemish? A 40-point loss to a Michigan team that’s vaporized everyone it’s faced since arriving in Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival.

UCLA, which will also have to go through the Michigan machine at some point during Big Ten play, has been wobbly in Mick Cronin’s seventh season, although the Bruins seem to be trending in the right direction after multiple Big Ten wins.

UCLA barely squeaked by former Gonzaga coach Dan Monson and Eastern Washington in the season opener, but the Bruins took another member of Mark Few’s coaching circle to the brink when they lost 69-65 to Tommy Lloyd’s now top-ranked Arizona team. UCLA followed that up with an 80-72 loss to Cal playing without top scorer Tyler Bilodeau, but picked up recent Big Ten wins over Washington and Oregon.

“I think they’ve done a nice job,” Few said. “They did a nice job in the portal adding some new pieces and keeping the ones they needed to keep. That’s a really nice looking team. I think they lost a couple there, might have been because they weren’t healthy at all the spots. I think they’re now healthy at all the spots. The last game I watched, they were.”

UCLA’s made four NCAA Tournament appearances under Cronin, advancing beyond the first round each time. The Bruins may not be aesthetically pleasing to watch, but their defensive-oriented approach can wear opponents down over 40 minutes.

Some statistical evidence to highlight that point: Gonzaga’s last three teams have averaged 86.6, 84.9 and 87.5 points per game. Only one of those three managed to eclipse 70 points against UCLA.

“Again, you’re playing a Mick Cronin team. It’ll be really physical, extremely physical,” Few said. “I’m sure they’ll try to slow the game down. It’s a fun game to play in. They challenge you in a lot of ways. Mick’s a great coach.”

Scouting Few’s team this week, the Bruins have taken note of Gonzaga’s improvement on the glass. The Zags were top 30 in rebound margin last season at plus-5.4, but the Bruins won that category at the Intuit Dome. Gonzaga’s rebound margin has ballooned to plus-12.7 this season, putting the Zags at No. 6 in the country. That could translate to a huge advantage against a UCLA team that sits No. 159 at plus-2.8.

“They just play tough and they just outwork the opponent,” UCLA forward Xavier Booker said. “That’s something we can’t let happen on Saturday. We just have to play on their level, play hard and play tough. That’s the main thing.”

Bilodeau, who attended Kamiakin High School in Kennewick, is leading UCLA in scoring for the second straight year, averaging 15.6 points on 52.1% shooting and 34.6% from the 3-point line.

Guard Skyy Clark (12.7 ppg) will be a focal point of GU’s scouting report one year after posting 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists against the Zags.

Donovan Dent was the Mountain West Player of the Year at New Mexico, but the senior point guard (12 ppg, 6.4 apg) is still trying to dial in his outside shot and making only 7% of his 3-pointers after going through multiple injuries earlier in the year.

Gonzaga’s bench has been considerably better than UCLA’s up to this point. GU’s reserves put up 38 points in the team’s first high-major test against Oklahoma – eight more points than UCLA had in four combined games against Arizona, Cal, Washington and Oregon.

One of the Bruins’ bench players is 6-foot-10 forward Steven Jamerson II, a San Diego transfer who missed the Toreros’ only WCC game against Gonzaga last year, but averaged 10.5 ppg and 6.5 rpg in two matchups with the Zags as a sophomore.

Gonzaga’s Ike didn’t play against North Florida due to left ankle soreness, but Few didn’t seem concerned the senior forward would be in jeopardy of missing Saturday’s game in Seattle.