Father of Gonzaga’s Ben Gregg wearing two hats – and possibly multiple logos – during Wednesday’s exhibition against Warner Pacific

As of last weekend, Matt Gregg hadn’t made a final decision on his gameday wardrobe for Wednesday’s preseason exhibition between Gonzaga and Warner Pacific.

Gregg, with close connections to both universities – his middle son, Ben, plays for one of them while the other employs him as athletic director – was still thinking through the options while watching Gonzaga’s charity exhibition against USC in Palm Desert, California.

Gonzaga top and Warner Pacific bottoms? Warner Pacific sweatshirt and Gonzaga sweatpants? Something entirely different?

“I told my wife, ‘Can you do some sort of a half shirt?’ ” Gregg said. “I’ll have both on.”

Gregg may be wearing a custom one-of-one jersey with logos of both schools and either sitting in the McCarthey Athletic Center section designated for Gonzaga parents, or the one reserved for road WPU fans, when the Division I Bulldogs and NAIA Knights from Portland tip off at 6 p.m.

With Ben Gregg entering his fifth and final year of eligibility, Matt made a strong push in the offseason to get Wednesday’s game on the schedule, including multiple phone calls and text messages to Jorge Sanz, a Gonzaga assistant and director of basketball operations who handles many of the team’s scheduling efforts.

“I reached out to Jorge for months to try to get this to happen and the thing is, they were trying to set all these other, bigger games up the whole time and we were like backburner,” Matt Gregg said. “Then he went to Spain, I think he got sick and I’m like, ‘Dude, are we playing or what?’ So anyway, finally it was like, ‘OK, quit bugging me.’ ”

Wednesday’s exhibition won’t count toward the win-loss record for either school, but both should find value in getting up and down the court for 40 minutes before starting their respective seasons next week.

Gonzaga, which lost 96-93 to USC in its first test against another opponent, will use it as another opportunity to look at a variety of lineups and experiment with different schemes and defensive strategies. The Zags open the season Monday against No. 8 Baylor – a game that not only counts toward the win-loss record, but could play a role in NCAA Tournament seeding months down the road.

Warner Pacific, which dropped its first two preseason exhibition games – both against Division II Alaska Anchorage – will be compensated for its trip to Spokane and players will have an opportunity to get an authentic Kennel experience, from using GU’s top-end facilities to facing a veteran Zags team that came in at sixth in the preseason AP Top 25.

Matt Gregg helped coordinate a preseason exhibition between the teams prior to the 2022-23 season – Gonzaga won 101-70 – and called in to see if the Zags could help with another favor, promising Sanz wouldn’t get any additional voicemails from WPU’s athletic offices after Ben graduated from Gonzaga.

“That’s what I told (Sanz) at the beginning,” Matt said. “This is his last year, I won’t bug you anymore about this. We won’t ask to play you again.

“If you need an emergency team, we’ll be that team, but I’m not going to ask you again after this year.”

Ben Gregg has worked out at WPU’s home gym since he was 6 years old, his father estimates, and the Zags practiced there in while competing at the Moda Center during the 2022 NCAA Tournament. While he’s home in Portland, Gregg participates in summer runs with WPU players and is familiar with the Knights’ roster, which returns leading scorer Matt Solomon (18.6 points per game) from a group that went 5-23 but won three of its final four games to close the 2023-24 season.

Matt Gregg, meanwhile, is bracing for a busy winter. He and wife Kori traveled to Southern California for Saturday’s exhibition against USC and will be in Spokane on Wednesday before Matt joins WPU’s women’s team for Friday’s exhibition against Oregon in Eugene. Matt, formerly the women’s coach at WPU, has a longstanding relationship with Ducks coach Kelly Graves, and took one of his teams to Spokane for an exhibition while Graves was still coaching at Gonzaga.

The Greggs will be back in Spokane for Monday’s opener against Baylor at the Arena and plan to make trips to the Bahamas, New York City and Los Angeles, vowing not to miss any of the Zags’ marquee nonconference games or the meaningful moments sure to come with Ben’s final college season.

“It’s funny, because we were at a restaurant on the way down at the airport and I showed my wife the new hype video and she started crying and I was like, ‘What is happening?’ ” Matt said. “So it’s going to be that year, I think. And I said, ‘What are you going to do on Senior Night if you’re crying over a hype video?’ So it was pretty funny.”