Gonzaga opens conference play Jan. 4 at home against Pepperdine
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Dan Deckel here, Gonzaga Nation SI.
00:04 Well, I'm in a little bit different surroundings,
00:07 studio or home office in reporting this.
00:11 So I apologize for any darkness in the video
00:15 or possibly struggle with the audio.
00:19 But Gonzaga Nation SI continues to roll on
00:22 as we get towards the end of August,
00:25 looking forward to the start of the school year.
00:28 But there's some big news coming out of the WCC today
00:31 that a lot of people have been waiting on.
00:34 And it starts to paint the picture
00:35 and allow you to kind of piece together
00:39 the rest of what you might be curious about.
00:41 And that's Gonzaga's schedule.
00:42 So we already know they've got a few different games
00:45 on the schedule that have been announced
00:48 in different places, talked about,
00:50 such as the San Diego State game at home,
00:52 the game at UW, the Maui Invitational,
00:56 which we don't know where it will play this year
00:58 due to the fires in Lahaina.
01:00 We know that they are going to play Kentucky.
01:02 That was just announced where,
01:05 literally in the last 36, 48 hours.
01:08 And then a couple of random one-offs have been released
01:11 due to other schools releasing their schedule.
01:13 But waiting on the full final non-conference from Gonzaga.
01:17 But that being said, the WCC released
01:19 their conference schedule.
01:21 And so in return, you see Gonzaga's conference schedule.
01:25 And with the fact that BYU is now out of the league,
01:28 we have nine teams.
01:30 So that makes the schedule change a little bit
01:34 from the last couple of years,
01:35 where you didn't play every single team twice
01:38 in a home and home.
01:39 A couple of teams you would skip
01:42 in regards to playing them two times.
01:44 So that's no longer the case.
01:46 Gonzaga will play every WCC opponent home
01:50 and away this upcoming season.
01:51 But when I look at the overall logistics
01:56 of the WCC conference schedule,
01:58 I see the fact that the league has gotten
02:01 a little bit creative in regards to working
02:05 with their broadcast partners, namely ESPN.
02:07 And I would guess maybe CBS Sports swoops up one as well.
02:12 And the fact that there are three games
02:13 that will be played on Tuesdays this year,
02:17 as well as a couple of Wednesdays.
02:18 That allows for different slots
02:22 in broadcast network schedules.
02:25 So you would imagine from everything
02:27 that's been released so far,
02:29 those three Tuesdays are probably gonna slide in
02:31 and become ESPN games.
02:34 The Wednesdays, Gonzaga at least has one of those Wednesdays
02:39 more than likely will be a CBS game.
02:43 'Cause CBS Sports Network produces a lot of games
02:46 on Wednesdays throughout the regular season.
02:49 But when we look at it, those three games
02:51 that are on Tuesdays involve one game with Gonzaga.
02:55 That would be LMU at Gonzaga on January 20th,
02:58 St. Mary's at Pacific on February 6th,
03:01 as well as USF at St. Mary's on February 20th.
03:06 I mentioned the Gonzaga playing at least one game
03:11 on a Wednesday, that's against the University of Portland.
03:13 And the reason that slid to a Wednesday,
03:15 and that's exciting is because right after that,
03:18 they play at Kentucky.
03:20 So that Kentucky game has been talked about.
03:23 Where's it gonna fit in the schedule?
03:24 Will they play it in November, December?
03:27 I thought it was gonna be slotted in mid-December,
03:29 maybe right around the time they finish up with finals
03:34 or before they go to finals, but that's not the case.
03:36 It's gonna be in mid-February.
03:38 On a Saturday, they'll have to travel back
03:40 to Lexington, Kentucky.
03:42 I like this.
03:44 This reminds me a lot about when John Calipari,
03:47 the current head coach at Kentucky,
03:49 was the head coach at Memphis.
03:51 And Gonzaga Memphis had a series,
03:52 I wanna say it was about four, five, six years,
03:54 where they went back and forth,
03:55 'cause Memphis was in the Conference USA,
03:58 GU was obviously in the WCC,
04:01 and both teams would try to find a way
04:02 to strengthen their teams before the push
04:07 of the last push in conference play,
04:10 conference tournaments, and the NCAA tournament.
04:12 So I think this is spectacular scheduling from Gonzaga.
04:16 And I think it helps Kentucky as well
04:18 to see a different style of team other than an SEC team
04:22 right before they get into post-season play as well.
04:26 So that was of interest.
04:28 That has been talked about a fair amount
04:31 in regards to where is that Gonzaga-Kentucky game
04:35 going to be slated.
04:37 With it being on a Saturday,
04:38 I would imagine it's going to be an ESPN game.
04:41 It might even be a big CBS game nationally.
04:44 It's hard to say just yet.
04:46 Most of those games will be announced
04:51 with who the television partner is.
04:52 That typically happens late to September
04:57 at the latest mid-October.
05:00 So should start seeing some of that stuff fairly soon.
05:02 But a couple other games that stand out to me
05:05 other than those Tuesdays for conference games,
05:09 there's three that stand out to me.
05:11 Well, those three stand out to me,
05:14 but then four others stand out to me in particular.
05:18 And the first is the first day of WCC play,
05:21 January 4th, it's a Thursday.
05:24 In the last few years, because it has been a 10-team league,
05:29 many games have started before New Year's Eve.
05:34 Maybe the 30th, a couple of games on the 31st.
05:36 That's no longer the case this year.
05:37 They start after the new year.
05:39 And right away, I think the one that jumps out at me
05:42 is a big opponent matchup is Santa Clara at LMU.
05:47 LMU has shown tremendous strides,
05:50 signs of progress over the last year.
05:51 Santa Clara was knocking on the door of the NCAA tournament
05:54 the last couple of years.
05:56 Outside of injuries, they may have gotten in.
05:59 They've produced just as many NBA players
06:02 the last two years as Gonzaga has
06:04 in regards to being drafted, I mean, by that.
06:07 So they've been active in the transfer portal
06:10 with Brandon Pajimski coming in last year.
06:14 He had a tremendous season,
06:16 then getting drafted by the Warriors in the first round.
06:19 They've been active in the transfer portal again.
06:20 We'll see just which player in that category
06:25 becomes a gem this upcoming season.
06:27 And then LMU, as I mentioned, signs of progress.
06:30 Dominic Harris, former Gonzaga player, now at LMU.
06:34 I would expect him to have a major roll down
06:37 in LA for Stan Johnson.
06:40 Other game that stands out for me
06:43 that's not Gonzaga-related in the WCC Conference
06:46 is gonna be Santa Clara at USF.
06:49 You mentioned a second ago,
06:51 Santa Clara and that transfer portal being really active
06:55 and finding a gem a season ago, and Pajimski,
06:57 hopefully they find that gem again this year.
06:59 Well, USF, there's been a number of national publications
07:03 that have listed their transfer portal activity
07:07 and who they got in the transfer portal
07:09 as being top 10 in the country.
07:11 So they've been active.
07:14 They've got some good players coming in.
07:16 The one that stands out to me is Magic Mike,
07:19 Mongolian Mike, whatever you wanna call him.
07:21 He's got a number of different names.
07:23 Mike Shravan, I'm not in the middle of broadcast season
07:29 where I've got the last name phonetically in front of me.
07:32 So just the transfer from Dayton,
07:35 6'7", 6'8", good ball handling skills,
07:38 good shooting skills, good passer feel for the game.
07:41 He headlines a crew of really good transfers at USF.
07:45 So that game to me,
07:47 because I look at it again this year with no BYU,
07:51 Gonzaga, St. Mary's, clearly top 25 teams.
07:56 And then the way the league is continuing to trend,
07:58 that third team each year should have aspirations
08:03 and thoughts of being in the NCAA tournament.
08:05 And right now, I know lots of teams have had movement,
08:08 but Santa Clara and USF to me,
08:10 as a early season, late summer look at it,
08:15 are to me those two teams that are gonna be fighting
08:17 for that third place kind of mark within the league.
08:22 And then when you look at Gonzaga,
08:24 the two games that stand out to me
08:27 in regards to league importance in Gonzaga,
08:32 was done no favors again by the league.
08:36 It's happened this way a number of times
08:38 in the fact that they have to wrap up the season
08:42 on the road.
08:43 So when you look at Gonzaga's final two conference games,
08:47 you got at USF on a Thursday, at St. Mary's on a Saturday.
08:52 I already mentioned how good I think USF is gonna be.
08:54 I think they're gonna be vying for a third place finish
08:57 maybe even have aspirations of finishing higher in the league
09:00 which they should, but I think they're very talented
09:02 and they've got an ability to do that.
09:05 So GU at USF, that's gonna be a big time game.
09:09 Second to last home game of the season.
09:11 And then Gonzaga, St. Mary's as the league has done
09:13 many times, whether it's in Spokane,
09:16 whether it's in Moraga, wrap up the regular season.
09:20 And if history holds true and it shares a little bit
09:26 about what this season may be,
09:28 is that it's gonna be a dog fight.
09:30 These two teams, yes, Gonzaga's got,
09:33 had St. Mary's numbers with blowout wins
09:37 on a number of occasions.
09:38 But when you look at the battles down in Moraga
09:41 over recent years,
09:42 those have been absolutely great basketball games.
09:45 You look at last year's game,
09:47 Aiden Mahaney had huge plays down the stretch.
09:50 Logan Johnson played well.
09:51 St. Mary's has Alex Dukas returning.
09:54 Mitchell Saxon is returning as well.
09:56 It's just that St. Mary's is just
09:58 such a good basketball team.
09:59 I think they're undervalued nationally,
10:01 but everyone on the West Coast knows just how good they are.
10:04 I would imagine that will be a game that,
10:09 honestly, I think it's gonna go down to the final weekend
10:12 for who wins the league title this year.
10:15 And then the other piece is both teams,
10:18 if they hold true to what they should do,
10:21 barring injuries, barring any struggles
10:24 in non-conference and conference,
10:28 I think those two teams are both gonna be top 15,
10:30 top 20 ranked teams at the time
10:33 when you're looking at the finale of the WCC.
10:36 And again, it might be for the league title,
10:39 which very well could be, I think it will be.
10:42 Obviously the Gonzaga fan in me would hope
10:44 that Gonzaga will have wrapped it up by then.
10:47 But as an analyst looking at it,
10:49 I think it's gonna be for the title in the league.
10:52 So interesting things, fun things to look at
10:55 now that the WCC conference has been released.
10:59 Now that you see a lot of WCC teams,
11:01 such as Pacific, LMU, Pepperdine,
11:05 releasing their entirety of their schedule,
11:08 you can start kind of really feeling
11:10 as if the season is right around the corner.
11:13 So some exciting times here in late August
11:17 for college basketball fans.
11:19 Gonzaga Nation SI, thanks for checking us out.
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