Report: Gonzaga to face Purdue as part of Nov. 2 doubleheader that will also feature Arizona-UCLA

Gonzaga’s aggressive approach to nonconference scheduling won’t change as Mark Few’s program leaves the West Coast Conference for the revamped Pac-12 next season.

That became more evident on Wednesday, when CBS Sports insider Jon Rothstein reported Gonzaga will face Big Ten power Purdue on Nov. 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as part of a doubleheader that will also pit Tommy Lloyd’s Arizona team against UCLA.

There’s no timetable for an official announcement, according to Rothstein’s report, and other details such as tipoff time and television broadcast information are still to be determined.

The four-team, neutral-site event should draw thousands of eyes on what’s presumed to be the opening day of the 2026-27 college basketball season.

Three of the four participating teams are currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, with Arizona sitting at No. 1, Gonzaga at No. 12 and Purdue one position lower at No. 13. UCLA isn’t receiving AP votes, but the Bruins are still projected to make the NCAA Tournament field and own a number of quality wins, including a narrow victory last month over then fifth-ranked Purdue.

The Zags and Boilermakers became familiar with each other playing three times between 2022-24. Led by two-time national player of the year Zach Edey, Purdue won all three matchups, defeating Gonzaga 84-66 on Nov. 25, 2022, at the Phil Knight Legacy in Portland, 73-63 on Nov. 20, 2023, at the Maui Invitational in Honolulu and 80-68 on March 29, 2024, in a NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 showdown in Detroit.

A neutral-site nonconference series between the college basketball powers has been brewing for years, Purdue coach Matt Painter told The Spokesman-Review in July 2024 while serving as an assistant coach for the USA Select team that helped the Olympic team prepare for the Summer Games in Paris.

“We’ve talked about it, not home-and-home, but we’ve talked about neutral sites,” Painter said.

The longtime Purdue coach who’s been at the helm in West Lafayette, Indiana, since 2005 gave high praise to Few, who’s coached at Gonzaga since 1999 and was also working with USA Basketball two summers ago as an assistant coach on the gold medal-winning men’s basketball team.

“Just the ability to sustain it,” Painter said of Gonzaga. “There’s a lot of people that go out and they have good teams, or they have two to three years where they’re really good. They’ve been damn good here for 25-30 years and probably more than that. I’ve only coached for 31 years.

“But that’s what to me is most impressive, is their ability – they take a big hit in the draft or maybe a kid leaves or somebody gets hurt or whatever. They’re able to just, ‘Ah OK, we’re still a No. 1 seed, we still get to the Elite Eight.’ ”

The Zags and Boilermakers will bring new-look rosters to Vegas for the nonconference matchup in November. Gonzaga could be replacing five key rotation players, including All-American candidate forward Graham Ike, who’s currently averaging 19.7 points per game.

Junior forward Braden Huff, who’s been sidelined since mid-January with a left knee injury, will be eligible to return for Gonzaga next season, along with fellow juniors Braeden Smith and Emmanuel Innocenti, sophomore Ismaila Diagne and freshmen Mario Saint-Supery and Davis Fogle.

Edey averaged 25 points and 11.6 rebounds in Purdue’s last three wins over Gonzaga. Few’s team won’t have to build a game plan around the 7-foot center who’s now with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies or All-American point guard Braden Smith, who recently became the Big Ten’s career assists leader in his final season with the Boilermakers.

Purdue will lose fellow All-Big Ten performers Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn and could have to replace 6-11 center Oscar Cluff, who played one year at Washington State in 2023-24 before transferring to South Dakota State and then Purdue.

The Zags are still in the early phases of building their nonconference schedule for next season. The only other known game is a trip to Omaha to play Creighton in the second game of a home-and-home series between the schools. Gonzaga’s also expected to make another trip to Las Vegas in November for its second appearance at the Players Era Festival tournament.

The Zags will eventually play Oregon for the second game of a neutral/neutral series at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, but Ducks coach Dana Altman told reporters in November it’s unclear if that game will take place during the 2026-27 or 2027-28 season.