Gonzaga, Baylor tip off college basketball season in style with top 10 showdown

College basketball tends to start the season with ranked teams serving up appetizers against overmatched opponents while college and NFL football are foremost in the minds of many sports fans.

So chew on this: No. 6 Gonzaga vs. No. 8 Baylor in Monday’s lid-lifter at the Spokane Arena. Two programs with Final Four ambitions squaring off late night – tip time is approximately 8:30 on ESPN2, or after Peyton and Eli are finished ribbing each other on the ManningCast of Monday Night Football’s Kansas City-Tampa Bay contest.

While Associated Press preseason top -five teams lined up openers against Howard, UNC Asheville, Sacred Heart, Jackson State and Mississippi Valley State, the Zags and Bears bring a much-needed spotlight to college basketball’s opening night. Monday’s next best game: No. 19 Texas vs. Ohio State, which received votes in the poll.

Gonzaga-Baylor has been in the works for years but ran up against the shot clock trying to work out sites for the first of a three-game series.

“Fortunately we were able to get the Spokane Arena,” Zags coach Mark Few said. “What an awesome opportunity for Spokane to host it but also just on the first night, it’s great for college basketball to have a marquee game like that.”

Baylor coach Scott Drew, Few’s good friend, agreed.

“The only top -10 matchup for opening night,” Drew said. “Coach Few and I both talked about it’s great for the game to have matchups like that following Monday Night Football, to get people talking about college basketball.”

It’s just the second time Baylor has opened against a ranked opponent – the first was vs. No. 15 BYU in 1979. The Zags are 1-3 opening against ranked foes but rolled over No. 6 Kansas 102-90 in 2020 in their most recent opportunity.

Gonzaga won the first five series matchups, but Baylor claimed the last two with an 86-70 win in the 2021 national championship and a 64-63 victory in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in Dec. 2022.

Monday’s clash is packed with storylines. The Zags return four starters, six of their top seven scorers, 81.4% of their scoring and 71% of their rebounding – their highest retention rate in almost two decades.

Baylor has nine newcomers, though transfers Jeremy Roach (Duke), Norchad Omier (Miami) and Jalen Celestine (California) have combined for 330 career games and 269 starts at their previous stops, one returning starter in senior guard Jayden Nunn and Langston Love, All-Big 12 honorable mention as Baylor’s sixth man last year.

“Just great athleticism, high-level talent, really high-level talent,” Few said. “(Drew) has got another projected one-and-done guy in VJ Edgecombe and he went out and got two great transfers. Jeremy started at Duke for three years and Omier was in the Final Four (in 2023) so those guys have been there, done that, seen it, lot of experience. And he’s got some important returners coming back.”

The Bears lost 71.4% of their scoring and 68.3% of their rebounding from last year’s squad, but they’ve retooled with high-level transfers and a top-10 recruiting class featuring Edgecombe.

“Early in the year, playing teams that return seven of their top eight (actually six of top seven) you’re always at a disadvantage and playing on the road you’re at a disadvantage,” Drew said. “At the same time, this will help us really get prepared for the rest of the year and prepare us for what’s ahead and life in the Big 12.”

The Bears come in with little publicity about their two preseason scrimmages. One was against Grand Canyon, coached by Drew’s brother, Bryce, to raise money for hurricane relief. The final score was kept a family secret, according to a GCU release. Baylor reportedly edged No. 13 Texas A&M 80-72 in a closed scrimmage with Omier scoring 17 points and Edgecombe adding 15.

“One thing you liked in both (scrimmages), when we got down we were able to respond,” Drew said. “They had a togetherness and a fight to come back.”

Meanwhile, GU’s rout over NAIA Warner Pacific was televised and a 96-93 loss to USC was available on Big Ten+. Both were exhibition games so the Zags experimented with numerous lineup combinations.

Drew believes the Bears will be “more of an explosive team, a team that could score in bunches. We have a lot of speed, quickness, athleticism, so that tends to be more an explosive team rather than a grind-it-out team.”

In the last six seasons, the Zags have ranked No. 1 four times, No. 3 once and No. 5 last season in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency. Their returning firepower should keep them high on that list.

“They are a tough matchup,” Gonzaga senior guard Nolan Hickman said. “They are guard heavy, very guard heavy, they’re going to be up in us, pressuring us a little bit. It’s a good challenge for us, especially this being the first game of the season.”