PORTLAND — Gonzaga returned to its usual spot in the NCAA Tournament field this season, earning its 27th straight appearance.
There was no such thing as usual this season for 14th-seeded Kennesaw State, which suspended its leading scorer at midseason due to a federal gambling investigation and tied for sixth place in Conference USA before pulling off three upsets in three days to capture the conference’s automatic berth.
Gonzaga (30-3), which has won 16 straight NCAA Tournament first-round games, meets the Owls (21-13) in a West Region opener on Thursday night in Portland, Ore. The Bulldogs get to play just 350 miles from their campus in Spokane, Wash.
“Everybody earned their way into this thing,” said Gonzaga coach Mark Few. “Now it gets down to getting stops and making plays. I don’t know about comfort level (in playing close to home), but it’s a lot easier travel-wise on our bodies.”
Gonzaga, the No. 3 seed in the West, won 15 in a row after an early-season loss to Michigan and beat Santa Clara in the West Coast Conference tournament final.
The Zags enter with a lot of history. They are 23-8 in the NCAA Tournament since 2017 — four more victories than anyone else — and are 28-10 since 2015. Yet they’re still seeking their first national championship.
“You just have to be your best at that moment,” Few said. “You’re going to hit adversity, whether it is (an opponent) making tough shots or maybe some foul trouble. You just have to dig in and fight through it.”
WCC Player of the Year Graham Ike leads the Bulldogs in scoring (19.7 ppg) and rebounding (8.2 rpg). Ike, a sixth-year senior, is the only active Division I player with at least 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. He leads all active players with 2,531 points.
“I know it’s my last one, but what’s the fun in thinking about that?” Ike said. “Let’s stay in the moment and play great basketball.”
The Zags will be without Braden Huff (17.8 ppg, 5.6 rpg) because of a dislocated kneecap suffered Jan. 15, but they did get versatile wing Jalen Warley back from a quad injury for the WCC tournament.
Kennesaw played the last two months without leading scorer Simeon Cottle (20.2 ppg), who was suspended after being named in a federal investigation into a point-shaving scheme during the 2023-24 season. The allegations do not involve games this season.
The Owls were 11-6 at the time of his suspension and are 10-7 since.
“It was adversity for sure,” Kennesaw State coach Antoine Pettway said. “When we went through that, we had two options. We could splinter, or we could come together even closer.
“We decided we were going to dig in even more. Everybody’s going to do just a little bit more and have their brother’s back. Our mantra all year has been love and serve your brother.”
RJ Johnson (14.5 ppg, 4.0 apg), Braedan Lue (11.1 ppg, 5.4 apg) and Frankquon Sherman (10.3 ppg, 8.4 rpg) are Kennesaw State’s leading producers.
The Owls play at a breakneck pace – they’re 19th nationally in adjusted tempo per KenPom – and they survive by hitting the offensive glass (grabbing 35.5% of their own misses) and getting to the line. They rank second nationally with 27 free-throw attempts per game.
Kennesaw State lost five of its last nine regular-season games and entered the Conference USA tournament as the No. 6 seed before beating No. 3 seed Western Kentucky, No. 2 seed Sam Houston and No. 4 seed Louisiana Tech.
A different Owl has led the team in scoring in each of the last five games. In the 71-60 title-game victory over Louisiana Tech, reserve guard Jaden Harris stepped up with 18 points and four 3-pointers.
“Gonzaga is a national brand,” Pettway said. “This is an opportunity for us to show the world our brand of basketball.”
–Jack Magruder, Field Level Media
