Gonzaga\u2019s exhibition opponent on Sunday is Northwest University, an NAIA outfit of Kirkland, not to be confused with Northwestern University, the Big Ten school based in the suburbs of Chicago.<\/p>\n
So, it goes without saying final score and margin of victory won\u2019t be nearly as important to Gonzaga\u2019s coaching staff as intangibles such as effort, execution and the ability to carry out a game plan over 40 minutes while mixing and matching various lineups and rotations.<\/p>\n
The Zags don\u2019t have a Power Four opponent on this year\u2019s exhibition slate, but the 2025-26 team will have multiple opportunities to test itself before the season opener, starting with a 2 p.m. McCarthey Athletic Center tipoff against Northwest, a private Christian school with an undergraduate enrollment of 695. The game will be available on SWX, but only to those located within the broadcast area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the main thing is just seeing the carryover, right?\u201d assistant coach Stephen Gentry said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had our eight-week summer program, our six-week fall program and now practices, intrasquads. We\u2019ve done a lot of tightening up through film and practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike okay, now let\u2019s continue to move the needle forward and carry over everything we\u2019ve been working on. Obviously doing that with a very, very high level of effort and consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonzaga can expect to play 31 regular-season games that will be more competitive than Sunday\u2019s tune-up against the NAIA Eagles, as well as a second exhibition against NCAA Division II Western Oregon eight days later, but both opportunities are nonetheless valuable for a team returning just four scholarship players who got minutes last season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible the Zags won\u2019t have everyone in the fold on Sunday, as junior forward Emmanuel Innocenti continues to nurse an injury he suffered near the end of the intersquad scrimmage held at Kraziness in the Kennel on Oct. 4. Innocenti, who left the scrimmage holding his left hip, has made good progress since the injury occurred but the Zags are understandably taking a cautious approach to his recovery and the forward is considered questionable for Sunday\u2019s exhibition that won\u2019t count toward the win\/loss record.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s close. I don\u2019t know if he\u2019ll be ready Sunday yet, but he\u2019s certainly trying to give it a go and he\u2019s responded really, really well,\u201d assistant Brian Michaelson said on Friday. \u201cHe\u2019s obviously a tough kid, so I think we\u2019ll just kind of have to see how he looks on Sunday before the game and obviously make a call with where he\u2019s at physically and obviously we want to get him out there, but also making sure we\u2019re making the best decision for the regular season, too. But he\u2019s been working at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two days after the NCAA denied Tyon Grant-Foster\u2019s eligibility waiver appeal, it\u2019s unclear if the Grand Canyon transfer will participate in the team\u2019s first exhibition. Grant-Foster has filed a lawsuit challenging the NCAA\u2019s ruling and a hearing for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Thursday, according to his attorney, Carl Oreskovich.<\/p>\n
Still, the exhibition may offer early clues as to which lineup combinations the Zags will turn to when regular season games begin, which players are in the mix for starting roles, how many could figure into the rotation and how newcomers like Braeden Smith, Mario Saint-Supery, Adam Miller and Jalen Warley will mesh with known commodities like Graham Ike and Braden Huff.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me it\u2019s just playing with great effort, hitting the things we\u2019ve talked about, especially I think defensively and rebounding, setting that that\u2019s going to be our tone,\u201d Michaelson said. \u201cThen on the other end, playing with a bunch of pace, taking care of the ball. There probably will be a lot of different lineups out there, but we\u2019ve had a lot of different lineups in practice because of the depth we have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen obviously a part of that too is being able to do all that and keep guys healthy, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s exhibition could be important to the future in another sense. Two days after securing a commitment from Sam Funches, a Mississippi native who\u2019s widely considered a top-10 center in the 2026 recruiting class, the Zags will be hosting four-star wing Luca Foster on his official visit. A commitment from Foster, a native of Pennsylvania, would bring GU\u2019s recruiting class to three members, with German combo guard Jack Kayil pledging to the Zags two weeks ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gonzaga\u2019s exhibition opponent on Sunday is Northwest University, an NAIA outfit of Kirkland, not to be confused with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":315482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-315481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115399750284500334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}