The Gonzaga Bulldogs finish the initial introduction to the season with a Tuesday night contest against the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.

Gonzaga is coming off a 50-point demolition of Arkansas Pine-Bluff on Saturday night. Filip Petrusev led the Zags with 25 points, one of seven players to score in double-figures for the Zags.

Tuesday marks the first game for North Dakota against D-1 competition this year. The Fighting Hawks have one game under their belt, a win over Crown College on Thursday.

Meet the opponent

North Dakota Fighting Hawks, 1-0, KenPom #265

You hopefully remember North Dakota as the school Geno Crandall transferred from, and the school that most recently gave the Zags a tight run for their money a couple of years ago. The Fighting Hawks return a good chunk of their scoring from last year, and if one game against a D-II school is any indication, redshirt freshman De’Sean Allen-Eikens is going to be quite the player. The 6’6 guard scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the win over Crown.

We will also see the battle of the Filip’s. North Dakota has their own Serbian big man, Filip Rebraca is a 6’9 sophomore forward who scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against Crown.

What to watch out for

Do we see Killian Tiillie?

Maybe. At the time I am typing this, no one knows.

Hopefully, we see some progress on the defensive end.

The Zags gave up a lot of open looks in the game against Alabama State. Things started to look a bit better against Arkansas Pine-Bluff. Tomorrow marks the last tune-up game before heading to Texas A&M, and North Dakota has a couple of really good shooters. Everything is small sample size at the moment, but the Fighting Hawks have a couple of legitimate threats from outside, including guard Aanen Moody. Let’s see if the defensive rotations can communicate bet