No. 6/7 Gonzaga (0-0) vs. No. 8/8 Baylor (0-0)
MONDAY, NOVEMEBR 4 | 8:30 P.M. | SPOKANE ARENA | SPOKANE
TELEVISION: ESPN2
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RADIO | LIVE STATS
 
THE OPENING TIP
- Gonzaga opens the regular season against No. 8 Baylor in the Findlay Toyota Tip-Off inside the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Monday at 8:30 p.m.
- The Zags have won 18 straight regular season-openers dating back to a 73-66 loss to Saint Joseph's in the 2003 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York City.
- In last year's season-opener, Gonzaga beat Yale 86-71 at home. Braden Huff led the Zags with 19 points and nine rebounds, Ryan Nembhard played all 40 minutes and had 16 points and seven assists, and Nolan Hickman added 15 points in 39 minutes.
- GU cruised to a 109-52 win over Warner Pacific in an exhibition Wednesday. Four Zags finished in double-digit scoring led by Hickman's 19 points. Huff and Michael Ajayi had 14 points.
- The Zags are ranked No. 6 in the preseason Associated Press poll. GU received 1,157 points in the preseason ranking, along with a first-place vote.
- This marks the 24th straight season Gonzaga has been ranked in the AP poll. It's the 15th consecutive year the Bulldogs have appeared in the preseason poll, starting in the top-20 for the 12th straight season.
- Gonzaga joins Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina as the only programs that have appeared in each of the last 15 preseason AP Polls.
- Last season, the Bulldogs advanced to their ninth straight Sweet 16, the longest active streak in the nation, and finished with a 27-8 record. Gonzaga finished No. 15 in the final AP Poll.
- The Zags extended its NCAA Div. 1 record to 17 straight seasons of at least 25 wins. GU's 27-straight 20-win seasons ranks second behind for the longest active run in the country.
- Of the 12 possible players that could come back from last season, 10 return for the 2024-25 campaign, including all four starters. The Bulldogs welcome back 81 percent of last season's scoring, along with 71 percent of their rebounding.
- The Zags are bringing back six of its top seven scorers, along with 81.4 percent of the minutes played, which is the highest retention rate for GU in almost 20 years. Only four other programs in the country bring back a higher percentage of minutes played.
 
SCOUTING THE BEARS
- Baylor welcomes nine new faces to the 2024-25 squad, aiming to replace four of their five starters off of last year's team, including a pair of first-round draft picks in Ja'Kobe Walter and Yves Missi.
- Potential top-5 NBA Draft pick VJ Edgecombe, and his star-studded classmates Jason Asemota and Rob Wright, should pick up the slack for some of those departures.
- The Bears brought in experienced transfers Jalen Celestine (California), Norchad Omier (Arkansas State and Miami) and Jeremy Roach (Duke) to help replace 71.4% of the scoring, 68.3% of the rebounding and 78.8% of the assists.
- Roach and Omier bring Final Four experience, as Roach helped his Duke team to the 2022 Final Four, while Omier led Miami to it's first-ever Final Four in 2023.
- Edgecombe is Baylor's fourth-straight Preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
- Roach was named the Big 12 Conference's co-Newcomer of the Year in addition to being voted to the Preseason All-Big 12 second team with Omier.
- Picked Fourth in the Big 12 Preseason Poll.
 
SERIES INFO
- Monday will be the eighth all-time meeting, with seven of the previous games have been on a neutral court, and five of the meetings have been decided by single digits.
- The Bulldogs won the first meeting between the programs, 77-75, on Nov. 29, 1991, in Fresno, Calif.
- The Zags won the first five meetings, but Baylor has won the last two matchups, the 2021 National Championship game in Indianapolis, and the latest in the 2022 Peacock Classic in Sioux Falls, S.D.
- In that 2022 meeting, Adam Flagler hit a pair of threes as No. 6 Baylor scored the final eight points of the game to rally past No. 14 Gonzaga 64-63.
 
UP NEXT
- Gonzaga hosts Arizona State in the first regular season game inside the McCarthey Athletic Center Nov. 10 at 2 p.m.
- It will be the first-ever meeting between the programs, and the first of a home-and-home series that concludes in Tempe next season.
- The Sun Devils open the regular season at home against Idaho State Tuesday, before welcoming WCC member Santa Clara Friday.
- Arizona State was picked 12th out of the 16 members in the Big 12 Conference preseason poll.
 
A BEAR OF AN OPENER
- No. 8 Baylor is the highest ranked team the Bulldogs have opened a season with since beating No. 6/5 Kansas in the 2020 Ft. Myers Tip-Off, 102-90.
- Gonzaga is 1-3 all-time playing ranked teams in regular season-openers. GU beat No. 6 Kansas in 2020, but fell to No. 17 St. Joseph's in New York City, 73-66, in 2003. In 2001, GU lost at No. 2 Illinois, 76-58. No. 8 Kansas knocked off the Zags in the 1998 regular season opener in Lawrence, 80-66.
- The Bulldogs are 15-50 all-time versus Top-10 opponents, and 15-43 under Mark Few.
- Gonzaga has lost its last three matchups against Top-10 foes, dating back to a 79-76 win over No. 7 UCLA in the 2023 Sweet 16 in Las Vegas.
 
SEASON-OPENING SUCCESS
- The Zags have won 18 straight regular season-openers dating back to a 73-66 loss to Saint Joseph's in the 2003 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York City.
- GU has won 33 consecutive regular season home-openers since a 73-65 loss to Boise State on Dec. 7, 1988.
- Gonzaga has won all 18 regular season home-openers in the McCarthey Athletic Center and all 24 regular season home-openers under Mark Few.
 
ZAGS IN THE ARENA
- Gonzaga is 13-6 all-time in its games inside the Spokane Arena since it opened in 1995.
- In the 2022-23 season, GU cruised to an 88-72 victory over Kentucky in the Spokane Arena. The Top-5 matchup drew 12,333 fans, the largest crowd ever for any event in the history of the Spokane Arena.
- Last season, Gonzaga beat Pepperdine in the CCF Classic in the Spokane Arena, 86-60, in front of 12,015 fans.
 
Gonzaga Men's Basketball History in the Spokane Arena
11/24/95 Washington State L 67-72 (OT)
11/30/96 Washington State L 62-75
12/8/98 Washington W 82-71
11/29/99 Washington State W 73-63
1/2/01 New Mexico L 80-81 (OT)
1/6/01 Prairie View W 93-50
12/22/02 Eastern Washington W 67-64
11/24/03 Georgia W 82-76 (OT)
12/31/03 Eastern Washington W 70-49
12/21/04 Eastern Washington W 83-70
12/19/05 Eastern Washington W 75-65
2/17/07 Memphis L 77-78 (OT)
2/7/09 Memphis L 50-68
12/12/09 Davidson W 103-91
2/5/11 Memphis L 58-62
11/26/11 Western Michigan W 78-58
12/10/14 Washington State W 81-66
11/20/22 Kentucky W 88-72
1/4/24 Pepperdine W 86-60
 
IKE AND NEMBHARD ON NATIONAL WATCH LISTS
- Graham Ike and Ryan Nembhard were named to the Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy preseason watch list for the 2024-25 Naismith Trophy Player of the Year.
- Ike was also named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches preseason watch list for the NABC Division I Player of the Year.
- The Naismith preseason watch list featured 50 players, while the NABC list had 20.
- Both awards will be announced the week of the 2025 Men's Final Four.
 
BULLDOG TRIO ON NAISMITH STARTING FIVE LISTS
- Michael Ajayi, Graham Ike, and Ryan Nembhard were all named their respective position preseason watch lists.
- Ajayi was named to the Julius Erving Award Watch List, which is given to the nation's top small forward.
- Ike was named to the Karl Malone Award Watch List, given to the country's top power forward.
- Nembhard was named to the Bob Cousy Award Watch List which is given to the best point guard in the nation.
- Gonzaga is one of 11 programs with three or more players listed on the lists. (Arizona 4, Alabama 3, Arkansas 3, Duke 5, Baylor 3, Indiana 4, Kansas 4, North Carolina 5, Texas 3, UConn 4)