Gonzaga’s non-conference schedule required fitting puzzle pieces together

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Dec. 26—College basketball nonconference scheduling is always a work in progress, but Gonzaga’s came together fairly late on the shot clock, err, calendar this season.

The final product: No complaints, especially with the Zags playing in the premier matchup on opening night and essentially closing day of the nonconference slate.

Gonzaga and Baylor went down to the wire — not the game, won by GU 101-63 — with discussions of possibly playing in Mexico City or elsewhere outside the U.S. before coming together for the season opener Nov. 4 at the Arena. The official announcement came in late September.

No. 14 Gonzaga and No. 22 UCLA should be Saturday’s marquee contest when they resume their entertaining series at Intuit Dome, spiffy new arena of the Los Angeles Clippers in Inglewood, California, before conference play heats up. That one took some juggling to finalize.

In between, the Zags also faced Arizona State, San Diego State, three games in three days at the Battle 4 Atlantis, Kentucky in Seattle and UConn in New York City.

“Basically, the schedule came together late this year,” said Gonzaga Athletic Director Chris Standiford, referring to the nonconference portion in general and the spacing out of four December games leading up to the Christmas holiday break. “It was dead week (prior to Kentucky) and Finals Week (prior to UConn) so it was giving guys academic space to navigate those two weeks.”

The GU-UCLA two-game series was announced in July and Saturday represents the first college game held at Intuit Dome.

“It was a common date that we could fit, UCLA could fit and the building could fit,” Standiford said.

To pull it off, the Zags adjusted their West Coast Conference opener — there are four conference games Saturday — to get the date with UCLA.

“We worked with the conference and got our bye at the front end,” Standiford said, “so I think we open with our bye and we stay down there to play Pepperdine (on Monday).”

Gonzaga typically schedules a home-and-home series…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/gonzagas-non-conference-schedule-required-030200416.html

Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

Publish date : 2024-12-27 03:02:00

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