A resounding road win against Portland wasn’t enough to push Gonzaga back into the Associated Press Top 25, but the 105-62 victory helped the Bulldogs make up some of the ground they’d lost in the NCAA’s NET rankings after consecutive losses in West Coast Conference play.
Monday’s AP poll results suggest Gonzaga may be nearing a return to the Top 25 at some point over the next few weeks if the Bulldogs can pick up a few quality wins. Gonzaga earned 34 points on Monday and sits seventh among teams “receiving votes.”
Gonzaga’s top WCC rival, Saint Mary’s, is closing in on its Top 25 debut this season, earning 45 points from AP voters and sitting sixth in the “receiving votes” column. Saturday’s battle between the Zags and Gaels in Moraga will not only have ramifications at the top of the conference standings, but could determine which WCC team is ranked come Monday, depending how things shake out elsewhere in college basketball.
There were no changes in the top five of the AP poll, with Auburn holding down the No. 1 ranking, followed by No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Iowa State, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Florida.
Although Gonzaga was unable to maneuver its way back into the AP poll, the Bulldogs continue to grade out well in the NET rankings — a crucial evaluation tool the NCAA’s selection committee will look at when determining at-large bids for the NCAA Tournament.
Gonzaga’s 43-point win at the Chiles Center bumped the Bulldogs up three spots from No. 18 to 15 in the NET rankings. GU dropped one spot, to No. 16, on Monday morning.
Mark Few’s team owns a 4-6 record in “Quad 1” and “Quad 2” games, but can improve to .500 in such games by going 2-0 this week. Gonzaga’s game on Tuesday at home against Oregon State profiles as a Q2 opportunity, with the Beavers sitting at No. 54 in the NET rankings. The Bulldogs will have a chance to pick up their third Q1 win this season when they travel to face No. 23 Saint Mary’s on Saturday.
Gonzaga has five more Q1 and Q2 games after this week and it’ll be important the Bulldogs stay inside the top 30 of the NET rankings. Just one team inside the top 30 has missed the NCAA Tournament since the rankings debuted in 2019.
ESPN’s latest bracketology projections, released Friday, have Gonzaga as a No. 7 seed opening the tournament against No. 10 Vanderbilt in Cleveland, Ohio. The Bulldogs are a projected No. 9 seed opening against No. 8 Texas Tech in Lexington, Ky., according to CBS Sports projections released on Monday.
Gonzaga is still considered a top-20 team by various analytics websites, ranking No. 10 at EvanMiya.com, No. 13 at KenPom.com and No. 19 at BartTorvik.com.
The Bulldogs failed to make the Top 25 of the USA Today Coaches Poll, sitting just outside while earning 55 points on Monday morning.
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