Northwest Notes: Oct. 7, 2022

Gonzaga men announce six-game

hoop series with Kentucky

Gonzaga men's basketball announced a six-game series with Kentucky on Thursday.

“This is something Coach Calipari and I have been working on for some time,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “It’s an exciting thing for both programs, both schools, both fan bases, and all of college basketball. Instead of a two-year thing, this gives everyone something to put on their calendar and look forward to over the next six seasons.”

The series begins this season at the Spokane Arena on Nov. 20. Kentucky hosts GU next season in Lexington. The programs meet in Seattle during the 2024-25 season, before facing each other in Nashville in 2025-26.

Gonzaga and Kentucky meet on their home courts beginning in 2026-27 in Rupp Arena, and in the McCarthey Athletic Center in 2027-28.

“I am so excited that we have finalized this series,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “Mark is a great friend and what he has done at Gonzaga to build them into one of the premier programs in our sport is incredible. The mindset I have when I put together our schedule here at Kentucky is that we want to always challenge ourselves by competing with the best teams we can find and generate some marquee home games for the best fans in the country. We have done that with Gonzaga and I look forward to competing with them the next six seasons.”

The programs have previously only met once when the Wildcats beat Gonzaga 80-72 in the 2002 Maui Invitational.

Gonzaga tabbed as favorite

in WCC men's basketball

For the 21st time in the last 22 seasons, the Gonzaga men's basketball team was selected as favorites in the West Coast Conference preseason coaches' poll. The annual poll, along with the WCC Preseason Team, was released prior to the conference’s media day event on Thursday in Las Vegas.

Rasir Bolton, Julian Strawther and Drew Timme were all named to the conference's preseason team. Timme earns the recognition for the second straight season.

After transferring to Gonzaga from Iowa State, Bolton made an immediate impact for the Zags. He started all 32 games last season, leading the team with 64 made three-pointers on 139 attempts. He led the West Coast Conference shooting 46 percent from behind-the-arc. The Petersburg, Va., native, made 50 percent from three-point range during the conference play.

Strawther scored a career-high 20 points twice, versus Duke and BYU. Against Duke on Nov. 26 in his hometown of Las Vegas, he added 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. He grabbed a season-high 12 boards against Tarleton State. The junior averaged 11.8 points per game, reaching double-digits 21 times.

Last season, Timme was named a John R. Wooden Award Player of the Year Finalist, Wooden All-American, and Second Team All-American by Sporting News, the Associated Press, NABC and USBWA. Timme, a Preseason All-American and the 2022 West Coast Conference Player of the Year was named First Team All-Conference the last two seasons, after being named All-Freshman in 2019-20. He topped the West Coast Conference averaging 18.4 points per game and was first scoring 18.5 points per WCC outing. The senior was third in the conference shooting 58.6 percent from the field, sixth grabbing 6.8 rebounds per game, and eighth blocking 0.78 shots per game.

Gonzaga has won 23 of the last 25 WCC regular season championships, 20 of which have been won outright. GU has won or shared 21 of the last 22 conference regular season titles. Gonzaga has appeared in 25 straight WCC Tournament Championship games, which is the longest streak of its kind in the nation. The Zags have won the conference tournament title nine times in the last 11 years.

WEST COAST CONFERENCE PRESEASON POLL (First-place votes in parentheses) — 1, Gonzaga (9) 81. 2, Saint Mary's (1) 73. 3, BYU 57. 4, San Francisco 57. 5, Portland 48. 6, Santa Clara 43. 7, Pepperdine 33. 8, San Diego 31. 9, Loyola Marymount 17. 10, Pacific 10.

PRESEASON ALL-WEST COAST CONFERENCE TEAM — Rasir Bolton, sr., G, Gonzaga; Alex Ducas, sr., F, Saint Mary's; Logan Johnson, sr., G, Saint Mary's; Keshawn Justice, sr., F, Santa Clara; Houston Mallette, so., G, Pepperdine; Tyler Robertson, jr., F, Portland; Khalil Shabazz, sr., G, San Francisco; Julian Strawther, jr., G, Gonzaga; Drew Timme, sr., F, Gonzaga; Fousseyni Traore, so., F, BYU.