Gonzaga finally announces 2014-15 non-conference schedule

It seemed to take forever, but the Gonzaga Bulldogs have announced a 13-game non-conference schedule for the 2014-15 season on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs have an exhibition game against Thompson Rivers at the beginning of November before the season officially starts against Sacramento State on Nov. 14. Here is the full non-conference schedule.

EDIT: Forgot to include the home game against Memphis on Jan. 31.

There really aren't too many surprises to the schedule. The games against UCLA, Arizona and SMU were announced so far in advance that the wait for the schedule was more about who else the team was going to fill in. Part of the delay possibly can be attributed to the semi-implosion of the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament. At any rate, there are some high quality games in there.

The SMU game lost a bit of its intrigue when Emmanual Mudiay failed to qualify at SMU and headed to China for his one year before the NBA. SMU will still be a very good team and a great early test against the Zags. With both Georgia and *hopefully* Minnesota at Madison Square Garden, the non-conference schedule shaped up pretty nicely. December is going to be a rough go with five games in two weeks, but it is encouraging to see Mark Few go back to the play anyone-at-anytime mantra without having all the games be on the East Coast.

Also of note, buried in there, is the Battle in Seattle, which is against Cal Poly. Cal Poly finished No. 179 in Ken Pomeory's rankings last year, but also made the NCAA Tournament after winning the Big West Conference Tournament.

It'll take some serious time to digest, but on first glance, this is a pretty solid non-conference schedule for Gonzaga. There are some quality games at home and some great games on the road to boost the resume come March. Let's get November here now.