Gonzaga might have the toughest nonconference schedule in the country
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Gonzaga Nation, I'm your host, Dan DeKalb.
00:11 Well, it's a day that everybody has been waiting for.
00:14 It's finally here.
00:16 The schedule is released in its entirety.
00:19 Well, obviously we know the league schedule
00:23 from a few weeks back.
00:24 You were able to piece together part of the schedule
00:27 based on other schools releasing their agreed upon date
00:32 against Gonzaga, as well as the usual suspects,
00:37 like knowing they're in the Maui Invitational,
00:39 things like that.
00:40 So you had a framework of the schedule,
00:42 but you didn't have the full schedule put together.
00:45 Now, I will say this, the full schedule,
00:47 as far as the dates are done, as far as tip-off time,
00:51 and what network the game will be carried on TV
00:55 is going to be on, that's not quite complete.
00:58 So typically what happens now at this time of year
01:01 is now that ESPN, CBS Sports, KHQ,
01:06 they know what Gonzaga's full schedule looks like.
01:10 What will happen is each of those schools or networks
01:14 takes a look at it and says, "I want these games."
01:17 Now, in the contract for ESPN with the WCC,
01:21 they're contracted to carry X amount of games for the league,
01:24 but then they can also carry any Gonzaga games
01:28 that they want.
01:29 Some of them are made for TV games,
01:31 similar to the USC game.
01:34 Obviously, some are gonna be part of the Maui Invitational.
01:38 It looks as though that Yukon game,
01:39 I don't know if it's ESPN or ESPN2,
01:42 sorry, I saw a graphic for it the other day,
01:44 that will be a kind of a made-for-TV set time
01:48 to work within the network schedule.
01:50 CBS Sports Network, they also have a contract
01:53 with the WCC that they will carry X amount of games.
01:57 Now, what I've heard is two of those games
02:00 will be Gonzaga games.
02:01 Which ones those are at this moment in time, I don't know,
02:05 but I have heard that there will be two Gonzaga games
02:08 carried on CBS Sports Network this season.
02:11 Essentially then, what happens is KHQ then
02:16 has the rights to the rest of the games.
02:18 So I would expect and anticipate KHQ route
02:22 to carry the rest of those games.
02:23 So don't hold me to that 100%,
02:27 but that's typically how it works
02:29 in regards to the schedule comes out
02:31 and then the broadcast schedule comes out as well.
02:33 So let's take a deeper look at the schedule now.
02:36 Gonzaga opens with an exhibition game at home
02:41 on November 3rd against Lewis and Clark State.
02:43 Well, they played Lewis and Clark State
02:44 a few different times in years past.
02:47 They're right down the road in Lewiston,
02:50 about an hour and 45 minute drive.
02:52 You just keep going past Pullman
02:54 and before you know it, you're at Lewis and Clark State.
02:57 It's an NAI school.
02:58 They've played in the national tournament at their level
03:01 a number of different times over the last eight to 10 years.
03:05 So they're a very good program.
03:07 They're very well coached.
03:08 Austin Johnson is their head coach.
03:11 There is a name that you'll wanna remember for that game.
03:13 Sam Stockton is a senior for Lewis and Clark State,
03:18 the son of John Stockton, the brother of David Stockton,
03:21 obviously a well-known Gonzaga family there.
03:24 Next game, November 10th,
03:26 10th, excuse me, against Yale out of the Ivy League.
03:30 Very rarely do Ivy League schools
03:32 travel outside of the East Coast
03:35 to play games at this time of year.
03:39 Most Ivy League schools are not allowed to miss school
03:43 for travel for sporting events.
03:46 So that's why if you were to look at a Ivy League schedule
03:49 during the league, you're gonna see a lot of Friday night,
03:52 Saturday night games.
03:54 If there is possibly, say, a Thursday game,
03:57 it would be a very close matchup
04:00 where maybe the two schools are 30, 45 minutes or so.
04:03 But typically the case is they're Friday, Saturday games.
04:07 But Yale, who's been very good out of the big, excuse me,
04:12 Yale has been very good out of the Ivy League
04:14 in recent years, will be at Gonzaga on November 10th.
04:18 Next up, November 14th, another game where, unfortunately,
04:23 for fans, you're not gonna get as excited about,
04:26 but I like the way the schedule's
04:28 getting put together so far.
04:30 They play Eastern Oregon, another team out of the NAIA.
04:33 They played Gonzaga, I think, three times now.
04:35 I believe they played them last year as well.
04:38 Or maybe it was the Chet Holmgren year.
04:40 I'm not quite remembering as quickly on that one
04:44 as far as I can remember.
04:45 But Eastern Oregon on November 14th.
04:48 That is another game against an NAIA opponent here at home.
04:52 One thing, if you'll look at that,
04:53 November 3rd, 10th, and 14th,
04:56 the only one of those three games is a D1,
04:59 and that would be Yale.
05:00 You can't play another Division I opponent
05:03 and have it count as part of your schedule
05:05 until November 6th.
05:07 Typically, Gonzaga plays that opening night
05:10 of college basketball,
05:12 but they don't play the 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th.
05:14 Their first game is the 10th.
05:16 Curious as to why, well, my guess would be
05:20 there were no games or no teams available
05:24 to fill into the schedule,
05:25 because I would imagine they would have wanted
05:27 to play earlier in that week.
05:28 That being said, the schedule in the powers that be
05:32 didn't schedule their first game 'til the 10th.
05:34 After the Eastern Oregon game,
05:36 Gonzaga travels to play in the Maui Invitational,
05:38 which we've covered and talked about,
05:40 is in Honolulu this year,
05:42 because of the fires in Maui.
05:44 But they'll open against Purdue,
05:45 and that tournament field is loaded this year.
05:47 Marquette, Tennessee, Kansas, just an unbelievable field.
05:52 And that opening round game against Purdue,
05:55 if you remember last year in the PK85,
05:58 Purdue beat Gonzaga pretty handily
06:00 in going on to winning that tournament.
06:02 Purdue went in unranked,
06:04 came out of that ranked in the top 10.
06:07 There are some people that have Purdue
06:11 in their top five to start the season.
06:13 I wouldn't be surprised even if somebody has them
06:16 as their top ranked team,
06:17 based on the fact that Zach Eady,
06:19 the reigning college player of the year, is coming back.
06:22 So that'll be the Maui Invitational.
06:24 After getting back from Maui,
06:25 they've got six days to get themselves
06:28 situated for their next home game,
06:30 and that will be November 28th
06:32 against Cal State Bakersfield.
06:35 They've played the Roadrunners in years past.
06:37 Rod Barnes, who was at Mississippi in years past,
06:42 has been at Cal State Bakersfield for a number of years now.
06:46 They play a really up and down style.
06:48 They're gonna get up and down the floor,
06:50 they're gonna play fast, they're gonna play free.
06:53 I look for that to be a very high scoring game.
06:56 November 2nd, they go back out on the road
06:58 for a neutral site game in Las Vegas against USC.
07:03 USC's going to be a good ball club this year.
07:06 They've got one of the top ranked recruiting classes
07:09 in the country, led by number one player in the country
07:13 as a freshman, Isaiah Collier,
07:15 a big strong point guard who's explosive.
07:18 But the guy that's a freshman
07:20 that gets the majority of those headlines,
07:22 Bronny James, LeBron James' son,
07:25 hasn't been cleared yet for practice,
07:27 had heart issues this summer during a practice,
07:31 so he is held out right now due to precautionary measures.
07:35 But hopefully for college basketball in this matchup,
07:39 he'll be back and ready to go on December 2nd.
07:41 Gonzaga returns home to play
07:43 Arkansas Pine Bluff December 5th.
07:46 Then they go to Washington to play the Huskies
07:50 on December 9th.
07:51 Coming back December 11th,
07:53 they will play Mississippi Valley State.
07:57 And then after that, they go back to Seattle.
08:00 So they'll have two games in Seattle
08:01 within about a week of each other.
08:03 That will be December 15th, Climate Pledge Arena.
08:06 The Zags will take on the defending champs,
08:09 the Yukon Huskies, who knocked them out
08:12 of the NCAA tournament a year ago.
08:13 That should be a tremendous game.
08:15 And then the last game before Christmas break
08:18 for players to head home on December 20th
08:21 will be against Jackson State here in Spokane.
08:24 Looks as if players will get a few days at home.
08:28 My thinking when I look at their calendar
08:31 is guys will probably be able to go home on December 21st.
08:35 And then more than likely,
08:37 they would be returning back to campus
08:40 the night of Christmas, so the 25th,
08:42 to start practice again,
08:46 leading up into a big showdown on December 28th
08:49 against San Diego State at home,
08:51 part of a two-year series here,
08:53 and then down at San Diego State the following year.
08:56 I think this is a tremendous matchup
08:58 simply for the fact that San Diego State
09:00 has quietly become one of the powers on the West Coast.
09:04 They were in the Final Four for the first time
09:06 a season ago where they broke through.
09:08 Coach Brian Dutcher does a tremendous job
09:10 after taking over for Steve Fisher,
09:13 who he was a right-hand man assistant for
09:15 for a number of years.
09:16 But they hang their hat on the defensive end,
09:18 one of the best defensive teams in all the country.
09:22 That should be a heck of a game.
09:23 That rounds out the non-conference,
09:26 and that rounds out the calendar year 2023
09:29 where Gonzaga then heads into
09:31 their WCC conference schedule,
09:33 which we've talked about before.
09:35 But they start off with two home games,
09:37 Pepperdine and San Diego, to get things started off.
09:40 One last game to talk about, though,
09:43 is that February 10th matchup
09:46 during the middle of the season where Gonzaga goes
09:49 back to Lexington, Kentucky, plays in Rupp Arena
09:53 for year two of a six-year series
09:56 between Gonzaga and Kentucky.
09:58 Again, I've said it before,
10:00 I really like this scheduling quirk
10:04 to add that into the middle of conference season
10:07 where Gonzaga can play another potential top 10,
10:10 maybe even top five team at that point of the year
10:14 to help get them ready for the stretch run of the WCC,
10:17 the conference tournament,
10:18 and also what is hopefully going to be
10:21 another deep run into the NCAA tournament.
10:23 So there you have it, an initial breakdown
10:26 on Gonzaga releasing their schedule.
10:29 For Gonzaga Nation, I'm Dan Dickow, thanks for listening.
10:32 (upbeat music)
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