No. 6/7 Gonzaga (0-0) vs. No. 8/8 Baylor (0-0)
MONDAY 4 NOVEMBER | 8:30 PM | SPOKANE ARENA | SPOKANE
TELEVISION: ESPN2
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RADIO | LIVE STATISTICS

THE OPENING TIP
– Gonzaga opens the regular season against No. 8 Baylor in the Findlay Toyota Tip-Off at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Monday at 8:30 p.m.
– The Zags have won 18 consecutive regular season openers dating back to a 73-66 loss to Saint Joseph’s in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic of 2003 in New York City.
– In last year’s season opener, Gonzaga defeated Yale at home, 86-71. 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 practice Wednesday. Four Zags finished in double figures, 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 earned 1,157 points in the preseason rankings, along with a first-place vote.
– This is the 24th straight season that Gonzaga has been ranked in the AP poll. It’s the 15th straight year the Bulldogs have appeared in the preseason poll and starts in the top 20 for the 12th straight season.
– Gonzaga joins Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina as the only programs to appear 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 country, and finished with a 27-8 record. Gonzaga finished at No. 15 in the final AP Poll.
– The Zags have their NCAA Div. 1 record in 17 consecutive seasons with at least 25 wins. GU’s 27 consecutive 20-win seasons rank second behind the longest active streak in the nation.
– Of the 12 possible players who could return from last season, 10 will return for the 2024-25 season, including all four starters. The Bulldogs welcome back 81 percent of their scoring from last season, along with 71 percent of their rebounding.
– The Zags return six of their top seven scorers along with 81.4 percent of minutes played, which is the highest retention rate for GU in nearly 20 years. Only four other programs in the country return a higher percentage of minutes played.

EXPLORING THE BEARS
Baylor welcomes nine new faces to the 2024-25 roster, aiming to replace four of their five starters from 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, would have to make up for some of those departures.
– The Bears brought in veteran transfers Jalen Celestine (California), Norchad Omier (Arkansas State and Miami) and Jeremy Roach (Duke) to create 71.4% of scorers, 68.3% of rebounders and 78.8% of replace 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 its 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 Co-Newcomer of the Year and was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 second team along with Omier.
-Picked fourth in the Big 12 Preseason Poll.

SERIES INFO
Monday will mark the eighth meeting of all time, with seven of the previous matches taking place on a neutral court and five of the meetings decided by single digits.
– The Bulldogs won the first meeting between the programs, 77-75, on November 29, 1991 in Fresno, California.
– The Zags won the first five meetings, but Baylor has won the last two games, the 2021 National Championship Game in Indianapolis and the final one in the 2022 Peacock Classic in Sioux Falls, SD
– In that 2022 meeting, Adam Flagler hit a pair of threes as No. 6 Baylor scored the final eight points of the game and rallied past No. 14 Gonzaga 64-63.

NEXT
– Gonzaga hosts Arizona State in the first game of the regular season at the McCarthey Athletic Center on 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 will conclude next season in Tempe.
– The Sun Devils open the regular season at home against Idaho State on Tuesday before hosting WCC member Santa Clara on Friday.
– Arizona State was picked 12th out of 16 in the Big 12 Conference preseason poll.

A BEAR OF AN OPENER
– No. 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 in regular season openers. GU defeated No. 6 Kansas in 2020, but fell to No. 17 St. Joseph’s in New York City in 2003, 73-66. In 2001, GU lost to No. 2 Illinois, 76-58. No. 8 Kansas defeated 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 among Highlight little.
– Gonzaga has lost its last three games against Top-10 foes, dating back to a 79-76 victory over No. 7 UCLA in the 2023 Sweet 16 in Las Vegas.

SEASON OPENING SUCCESS
– The Zags have won 18 consecutive regular season openers dating back to a 73-66 loss to Saint Joseph’s in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic of 2003 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 at McCarthey Athletic Center and all 24 regular season home openers under Highlight little.

SAWS IN THE ARENA
– Gonzaga is 13-6 all-time in games at Spokane Arena since it opened in 1995.
– In the 2022-2023 season, GU posted an 88-72 win over Kentucky at Spokane Arena. The Top-5 match drew 12,333 fans, the largest crowd for any event in Spokane Arena history.
Last season, Gonzaga defeated Pepperdine in the CCF Classic at Spokane Arena, 86-60, in front of 12,015 fans.

Gonzaga Men’s Basketball History at Spokane Arena
24-11-95 Washington State L 67-72 (OT)
11/30/96 Washington State L 62-75
8-12-98 Washington W 82-71
11/29/99 Washington State W 73-63
2-1-01 New Mexico L 80-81 (OT)
6-1-01 Prairieview W 93-50
12/22/02 Eastern Washington W 67-64
24-11-03 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
17-02-07 Memphis L 77-78 (OT)
7-2-09 Memphis L 50-68
12/12/09 Davidson W 103-91
5-2-11 Memphis L 58-62
11/26/11 Western Michigan W 78-58
10-12-14 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 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy preseason watchlist for the 2024-25 Naismith Trophy Player of the Year.
– Ike was also named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ preseason list for the NABC Division I Player of the Year.
– The Naismith preseason watch list had 50 players, while the NABC list had 20.
– Both awards will be announced the week of the 2025 Men’s Final Four.

BULLDOG THREESOME AT NAISMITH WITH FIVE LISTS
– Michael Ajayi, Graham IkeAnd Ryan Nembhard were all named their respective preseason position lists.
– Ajayi was named to the Julius Erving Award Watch List, which is given to the nation’s best small forward.
– Ike was named to the Karl Malone Award Watch List, given to the nation’s best forward.
– Nembhard was named to the Bob Cousy Award Watch List, which is given to the nation’s best point guard.
– Gonzaga is one of 11 programs with three or more players on the roster. (Arizona 4, Alabama 3, Arkansas 3, Duke 5, Baylor 3, Indiana 4, Kansas 4, North Carolina 5, Texas 3, UConn 4)