Gonzaga to play Big Ten power in marquee game

Originally posted on Gonzaga Bulldogs on SI
By Cole Forsman | Last updated Aug 12, 2025 9:08 PM ET

The Gonzaga men's basketball team has won 741 games under head coach Mark Few, though only one of those victories has come against his alma mater.

According to a report Tuesday from Jon Rothstein, the Bulldogs will have another crack at win No. 2 this December.

The Zags are slated to take on Oregon at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, on Dec. 21. Tip-off times or broadcast details haven't been disclosed.

It would be the third time in Few's career as a head coach — and the first instance on the United States mainland — in which he and the Bulldogs faced his alma mater in a marquee college basketball game.

The Zags came out victorious in the most recent affair with the Ducks, a 73-72 overtime final in the 2019 Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. Their only other previous run-in featuring Few was in the 1999 Rainbow Classic championship game in Hawaii, where the Ducks came away with a 70-64 victory in the 12th game of Few's head coaching career.

The next edition of Ducks-Zags pits two squads ranked inside the top 30 of Bart Torvik's preseason rankings against one another in a matchup that could certainly have postseason implications at stake for both programs.

Oregon, checking in at No. 27 on Torvik, returns its top two scorers in 7-foot center Nathan Bittle (14.2 ppg in 2024-25) and 6-foot guard Jackson Shelstad (13.7 ppg) from a team that finished 25-10 and advanced to the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Head coach Dana Altman also brings in a transfer portal class that checks in at No. 56 in the country on EvanMiya.com's transfer class rankings, headlined by former Duke and Ohio State forward Sean Stewart (No. 68-ranked transfer in the nation according to EvanMiya.com). Senior guard TK Simpkins, formerly at Elon, was rated as a four-star transfer by On3.com, after putting up 16.4 points per game and earning all-conference honors in 2024-25.

Gonzaga, coming in at No. 24 on Torvik, welcomes back a few familiar faces — Graham Ike and Braden Huff in particular — and welcomes a couple of newcomers in Adam Miller (9.8 ppg at Arizona State last season) and Tyon Grant-Foster (14.8 ppg at Grand Canyon) to a program coming off a 26-9 campaign and a second round exit in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

An official announcement on the Dec. 21 game is expected soon, per Rothstein. It would confirm the Ducks as part of Gonzaga's already loaded nonconference schedule, featuring at least nine games against power conference foes.