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The West Coast Conference has announced the 2019-20 conference schedule, with the Gonzaga Bulldogs opening conference play against the Portland Pilots on Jan. 02, 2020 and closing at home against Saint Mary’s.
This upcoming season, the Zags will only play the Portland Pilots and the Pacific Tigers once, part of the new WCC agreement which hopes to put less of a drag on the rankings for the top performers in the conference.
Here is the Zags’ schedule:
- Jan. 2: @ Portland
- Jan. 4: vs. Pepperdine
- Jan. 9: @ San Diego
- Jan. 11: @ Loyola Marymount
- Jan. 16: vs. Santa Clara
- Jan. 18: vs. BYU
- Jan. 23: Bye
- Jan. 25: vs. Pacific
- Jan. 30: @ Santa Clara
- Feb. 1: @ San Francisco
- Feb. 6: vs. Loyola Marymount
- Feb. 8: @ Saint Mary’s
- Feb. 13: Bye
- Feb. 15: @ Pepperdine
- Feb. 20: vs. San Francisco
- Feb. 22: @ BYU
- Feb. 27: vs. San Diego
- Feb. 29: vs. Saint Mary’s
At a quick glance, although much is unknown about the power of the Gonzaga Bulldogs next season, the Zags could legitimately run the conference through the first 2/3s of play. Gonzaga won’t really face a single tough game (although the War Memorial Gymnasium is always close) until they head to Moraga on Feb. 8.
That said, the final third of conference play is going to be a real test, and if we want the Zags to succeed in March, that shouldn’t be much of a big deal. The Zags will play theoretically the three hardest conference games (home and away vs. Saint Mary’s, away vs. BYU) in the final month of conference play.
Gonzaga is heading into the 2019-20 season with incredibly high expectations. Although the Zags lost two arms and one-and-a-half legs from last season’s squad, the highly-rated incoming recruiting class combined with the experience of Killian Tillie and Corey Kispert has the pundits drooling.
Last season, the Zags ran the WCC table during the regular season for the first time since the 2012-13 season. This year, a top 25 preseason ranked Saint Mary’s squad will have something to say about that happening again.