After months of recruiting, scheduling and portaling, No. 6 Gonzaga and No. 8 Baylor are set to square off in a battle of top-10 teams to tip-off the 2024-25 college basketball season.
Mark Few and Scott Drew have looked forward to Monday’s matchup at the Spokane Arena essentially since the 2023-24 campaign ended, as the two head coaches started working on the details for it during the 2024 Final Four. Few noted the two sides got “desperate” at times, though when it was all set and done, he and Drew helped put together college basketball’s one and only ranked matchup on opening day.
The Bulldogs brought back six of their top seven scorers from last season, including four of five starters from their Sweet 16 game against Purdue. Senior guard Ryan Nembhard (12.6 ppg, 6.9 apg in 2023-24) and redshirt senior forward Graham Ike (16. ppg, 7.4 rpg) helm the No. 2 offense in the country to start the season. Both were named to the 2025 Naismith Trophy watch list and the preseason All-WCC team.
Senior guard Nolan Hickman (14.0 ppg, 2.9 apg) was also tabbed to the all-conference team after his career-year as a junior. Pepperdine transfer Michael Ajayi (17.2 ppg, 9.9 rpg) was the fourth Zag named to the All-WCC team.
Fans got a peak at the new-look Zags new-look squad during their two exhibition games.Gonzaga lost to USC, 96-93, in Palm Desert, California, in its first friendly beforetaking down NAIA-foe Warner Pacificin a 57-point victory last week at the McCarthey Athletic Center. The final results don’t count in the win-loss column, but the exhibitions did provide Few and the coaching staff a chance to tinker with different substitutions and five-man combinations on the floor.
Safe to say the Bulldogs won’t be toying around with anything when they face the Bears, who look to replace four of their five starters from last season’s 24-11 team with an abundance of young talent and experienced transfer players. Likely one-and-done prospect, 6-foot-5 freshman VJ Edgecombe, headlines a star-studded recruiting class that ranked No. 6 in the country according to 247Sports. Drew also brought in a pair of fifth-years who boast Final Four experience in 6-foot-2 guard Jeremy Roach (14.0 ppg, 3.3 apg at Duke) and 6-foot-7 forward Norchad Omier (17.0 ppg, 10.0 rpg at Miami).
Junior guard Jayden Nunn (10.7 ppg) is the lone returning starter, while 6-foot-5 redshirt junior Langston Love (11.0 ppg) returns to the backcourt as well.
“Just great athleticism, really high-level talent,” Few said of Baylor. “[Drew’s] got another projected one-and-done [VJ Edgecombe] and went out and got two great transfers. Jeremy Roach started at Duke for three years. One more kid from Miami who went to the Final Four. I mean, those guys have been there, done that and seen a lot of experiences. He’s got some important returners coming back too. So, high-level athleticism, high-level talent.”
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