Gonzaga rewind: Zags’ Few, Bluejays’ McDermott still see value in home-and-home scheduling model

Not unlike roster retention and the mid-range shot, home-and-home scheduling agreements between premier college basketball programs have become somewhat of a lost art in recent years.

As teams try to navigate nonconference scheduling with NCAA Tournament qualification and NIL opportunities in the back of their mind, high-level games that were held exclusively on college campuses two decades ago have shifted to neutral-site venues and multiteam events (MTEs).

But some of the sport’s top coaches still see the value in the traditional home-and-home model, which caters to the student body in a way neutral site games do not and potentially incentivizes a larger group of fans to donate to the school’s NIL collective and/or revenue sharing fund.

Gonzaga’s Mark Few and Creighton’s Greg McDermott agreed to a multiyear home-and-home series in May, at a point when neither coach knew exactly what their roster would look like or how their teams would gel by the time Tuesday’s top-25 matchup at McCarthey Athletic Center came around.

The 19th-ranked Zags fed off their home crowd and appeared to be miles ahead of Creighton on the court, building a two-possession lead at halftime before pummeling he 23rd-ranked Bluejays in the second half of a 90-63 victory.

“Mark and I have known each other a long time, obviously,” McDermott said. “I’ve got tremendous respect for what he’s done and what he continues to do. And part of it in this world of revenue sharing and NIL, a lot of teams are going to neutral-site games because maybe there’s a financial benefit to that.

“But at the same time we’re also asking our fans and our boosters for more and more every year. If you’re going to do that, they deserve to watch good games at home.”

The Gonzaga-Creighton series will head back to Omaha next year for a game at CHI Health Center, an 18,000-seat venue where the Bluejays have lost only six times over the last three seasons.

“I think we owe it to our fans to play good games and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” McDermott said. “I’ve obviously got a very new team. We’re trying to figure out a lot of things, but when you come into an environment like this you’re going to get exposed one way or the other.”

The Zags have not ducked hostile road environments under Few, playing true road games each of the last three seasons at places like Kentucky, Texas, San Diego State and Washington.

GU’s next game also fits into that category.

The Zags are traveling to play Arizona State on Friday at Desert Financial Arena, where an estimated 14,000 fans are expected to attend a game that will coincide with Homecoming weekend in Tempe.

“We’ve had a lot of them over the years,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “I think people need to understand there’s not much of this happening in nonconference scheduling anymore. It’s not just Gonzaga, it’s everywhere. I think we’ve probably had more than anybody for the most part. It’s a great series, Creighton’s a great program. They’re good every year and they’re a challenge.”

Below, we dive deeper into what happened between the lines on Tuesday night.

Jays’ loss was Zags’ gain

One of the more significant recruiting weekends for Creighton in recent memory came in March of 2020, when the Bluejays hosted two top guard prospects in the class of 2021.

“Headlining the visit weekend for the Bluejays are Jalen Warley and Hunter Sallis,” author Brian Snow wrote in a story for recruiting website 247Sports.com.

Creighton and Gonzaga fans both know how things turned out for those two, but for anyone else needing a refresher: Sallis left his hometown of Omaha to sign with Gonzaga as the second-highest recruit in program history and Warley eventually found his way to Spokane after spending three seasons at Florida State and a brief stint at Virginia.

The Bluejays did reel in two other players on the visit – Ryan Kalkbrenner and Isaac Traudt – but it probably pained McDermott to watch Warley swipe rebounds off the glass in a Gonzaga uniform Tuesday night, rather than a Creighton one.

The senior wing continues to be a high-impact player for Gonzaga at both ends and is second on the team in rebounds (7.0 per game) despite coming off the bench in all three wins and ranking fifth in minutes. Warley flirted with a double-double against Oklahoma, scoring 13 points to go with eight rebounds and came up just shy again on Tuesday, notching nine points and nine rebounds.

McDermott didn’t manage to sign the Philadelphia-area native and top-40 prospect out of high school, but made another push when Warley entered the transfer portal following his junior year at Florida State. The long, athletic wing instead chose Virginia before rerouting to Gonzaga last November after Cavaliers coach Tony Bennett announced his retirement.

“Jalen Warley really changes this team,” McDermott said. “I recruited him out of high school and we talked again when he left Florida State. I’ve always loved the way he plays. I think he’s a winner. He doesn’t shoot the ball great, but he impacts the game in so many ways.”

The senior has been a key cog in GU’s improved defense, particularly on the perimeter where the Zags have three quality stoppers in Warley, Emmanuel Innocenti and Tyon Grant-Foster.

“Jalen’s special … he can really fly around, he’s got a nose for the ball,” Few said. “But also he’s dealing with guys not guarding him and it doesn’t phase him at all. He’s cutting, he’s flare screening for other guys, he’s setting screens so there’s no coverage when our guys come off that. He’s making plays off the drive, he’s making plays in transition. He’s off to a heckuva start.”

Assist-to-turnover nightmare

We touched on the defense in the section above, but it probably warrants another mention after the Zags used a 21-0 run to pull away from Creighton midway through the second half.

During that stretch, the Bluejays were stuck at 45 points for 6 minutes, 40 seconds, and had more turnovers (9) than points (7) through the first 13 minutes of the second half.

GU’s defensive numbers are strong across the board, but the stat that may be most indicative of the Zags’ improvement is opponent assist-to-turnover ratio.

After Texas Southern registered just seven assists compared to 17 turnovers in the season opener, a pair of high-major opponents did not fare any better. Oklahoma had just five assists compared to 16 turnovers in Saturday’s 83-68 loss at the Arena while Creighton tallied eight assists and 18 turnovers Tuesday.

Through three games, GU’s opponents have 20 assists and 51 turnovers. The Zags, meanwhile, have recorded 60 assists with just 28 turnovers.

“We can put some groups out there that can really, really play D,” Few said. “They like playing D, they’re very disruptive and they kind of feed off each other.”

The Zags soared to No. 2 at KenPom after Tuesday’s win, boasting a defensive rating that ranks No. 5 nationally.