The Zags are no strangers to March Madness.
The Gonzaga men’s basketball team earned its 28th bid to the NCAA Tournament since 1995 this season.
The Zags have qualified for the Big Dance every season since head coach Mark Few was hired in 1999. The only season they didn’t play in the tournament was 2020, when it was canceled due to COVID-19.
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Gonzaga (30-3) earned a No. 3 seed this year, and its latest run begins against No. 14 Kennesaw State (21-13) Thursday at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.
The Zags enter the tournament having won eight of their past nine games, including an 11-point win over Santa Clara in the West Coast Conference Tournament championship game. Gonzaga won at least 30 games for the ninth time since 2012-13, and it looks primed for another deep NCAA Tournament run.
The Zags haven’t won a national title, but they have made the Sweet 16 four times since 2016 and the Elite 8 twice during that span. They’ve made the national championship game twice, losing to Baylor in 2021 and North Carolina in 2017.
Gonzaga is led by WCC Player of the Year Graham Ike, who leads the conference with 19.7 points a game and ranks No. 2 in the league with 8.2 rebounds. He also leads the conference with 14 double-doubles. The 6-foot-9 fifth-year senior is shooting 57 percent from the floor and has 70 assists and 25 blocked shots on his resume.
The Zags are still without second-leading Braden Huff, who was lost in January to a knee injury, but freshman point guard Mario Saint-Supery put up a team-high 21 points in the WCC Tournament championship game, and 6-foot-7 Grand Canyon transfer Tyon Grant-Foster added 20 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
Kennesaw State dropped its final two regular-season games, but the Owls won three straight in the Conference USA Tournament and claimed their first conference title with a 71-60 win over Louisiana Tech in the finals.
The Owls’ leading scorer, Simeon Cottle, was suspended indefinitely in January for his alleged role in a point-shaving scandal. Six-foot-4 sophomore RJ Johnson has picked up the slack with team-highs in points (14.5 PPG), assists (131), and steals (40). Six-foot-9 freshman Amir Taylor has scored in double digits in six-straight games, including a season-high 23 points in the Conference USA semifinals and 17 in the finals.
Gonzaga vs. Kennesaw State Odds
Gonzaga is a 21.5-point college basketball betting odds favorite on BetMGM as of this writing, and the Over/Under is at 154.5 points.
The Moneyline is at -5000 for Gonzaga and +1500 for Kennesaw State.
Gonzaga vs. Kennesaw State On TV
The first-round NCAA Tournament game featuring No. 3 Gonzaga and No. 14 Kennesaw State will be televised on TBS.
Tip-off is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET.
Gonzaga vs. Kennesaw State Prediction
I predict Gonzaga wins 82-70.
Kennesaw State is coming off one of its best defensive performances of the season in the Conference USA title game. Louisiana Tech shot 30.6% from the floor and went 2-for-12 from 3-point range.
The Owls average a Conference USA-best 83.4 points a game, and they have a couple of talented big men in 6-foot-7 forward Frankquon Sherman and 6-foot-8 freshman Trey Simpson.
What they don’t have is anyone who can slow Ike down, especially when Saint-Supery is scoring the way he did in the WCC championship.
Ike has scored at least 20 points in a game 16 times this season, including in a streak of nine-straight games. He put up a season-high 35 points against Oregon State and 34 against WCC rival St. Mary’s.
