Sep. 18—The long-rumored Gonzaga-Baylor males’s basketball matchup has a date, a website and a future.
The groups are anticipated to sq. off Nov. 4 — opening day of the upcoming season — on the Spokane Area. Tip time and tv preparations are nonetheless being finalized, in accordance with a Gonzaga supply.
GU and Baylor have additionally agreed to contests within the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons at impartial websites to be decided, school basketball analyst Jeff Goodman reported.
Gonzaga, which returns seven of its prime eight scorers, is No. 5 in ESPN’s newest preseason rankings. No. 6 Baylor options one of many nation’s prime backcourts with returners Langston Love and Jayden Nunn, Duke switch Jeremy Roach and top-five recruit V.J. Edgecombe. The Bears additionally added Miami switch ahead Norchad Omier, a second-team All-ACC choice final 12 months after averaging 17.0 factors and 9.97 rebounds.
Gonzaga-Baylor instantly turns into the highest matchup of recognized video games on the opening-day schedule. The Zags usually ease into the season towards an overmatched opponent, however Baylor represents GU’s hardest opening project for the reason that top-ranked Zags thumped No. 6 Kansas 102-90 in Fort Myers, Florida, to launch the 2020-21 season.
The Bears, who’ve received at the least 20 video games in 15 of the previous 17 seasons below coach Scott Drew, are one other sturdy entry to the Zags’ difficult nonconference slate that features three video games (and probably a top-10 showdown vs. Arizona) within the Bahamas, neutral-site matchups with Kentucky, two-time defending nationwide champion UConn and UCLA, a house date with Arizona State and a street contest vs. San Diego State.
Gonzaga and Baylor have been discussing an early season matchup for a number of weeks with preliminary posts on X from school basketball analysts suggesting Las Vegas or Mexico Metropolis as potential websites.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few and Baylor counterpart Drew are shut mates and their packages have clashed a number of instances in high-stakes NCAA Event video games, regular-season contests and preseason scrimmages.
The Zags received the primary 5 sequence conferences, with their most up-to-date victory an 83-71 rout within the second spherical of the 2019 NCAA Event.
Baylor has received the previous two matchups, dealing with undefeated and top-ranked Gonzaga 86-70 within the 2021 nationwide title sport and scoring the ultimate eight factors in a 64-63 comeback victory in December 2022 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.