Gonzaga’s season-opening streak is now up to 23, and the latest chapter came with a little more edge than some of the others. The Bulldogs went into Las Vegas and outlasted Purdue 78-72 on Monday, giving Mark Few another win to add to a run that’s stretched across more than two decades.
That kind of streak doesn’t happen by accident, and it hasn’t always been built on soft openers. Few’s teams have mostly started with the kind of games high-major programs usually prefer: manageable matchups, plenty of room to settle in, and not much risk of a bad headline on night one.
But that approach has changed some in recent years. Three of Gonzaga’s last seven openers have come against Power Five opponents, including Purdue, a top Big Ten contender under Matt Painter.
“This is what these guys want to play,” Few told TNT sideline reporter Allie LaForce in a postgame interview. “At this point in my career, these are the games I’d like to play so what the heck.”
The streak’s only real blemish came all the way back in 2003-04, when Gonzaga traveled to Madison Square Garden for a Coaches vs. Cancer matchup with Saint Joseph’s.
Freshman Adam Morrison made his college debut that night and put up 10 points on 5 of 10 shooting with five rebounds in 31 minutes. Gonzaga led 38-34 at halftime, but Saint Joseph’s took over after the break behind a roster that included first-round NBA Draft picks Jameer Nelson and Delonte West.
The Hawks outscored the Bulldogs by 11 in the second half and won 73-66.
That Saint Joseph’s team was no ordinary opener opponent. It won 27 straight games, took its first loss in the Atlantic 10 Tournament and reached the Elite Eight.
Gonzaga didn’t lose another opener after that, and a few of the games along the way have been far more dramatic than the final score suggests.
One of the tightest calls came in 2005 against Idaho. The Vandals were coming off a 4-25 season and would win just three Division I games, but Gonzaga still found itself in trouble at home.
The Bulldogs trailed 34-33 at halftime and didn’t fully shake loose until Morrison buried a 3-pointer with 12 minutes left to put them up 11. Idaho kept hanging around, and Tanoris Shepard’s 3-pointer cut the gap to two with a little under five minutes to play.
J.P. Batista, who finished with 23 points and nine rebounds, steadied Gonzaga from there with baskets on three of the next four possessions, and the Vandals managed only three points the rest of the way in a 69-60 Zags win.
Then there was the heavyweight opener in 2020, when Gonzaga met Kansas in a neutral-site showdown to begin the 2020-21 season. Both teams entered ranked in the AP top 10 - Gonzaga at No. 1 and Kansas at No. 6 - and both lineups were loaded with future pros.
The Zags countered with Jalen Suggs, Andrew Nembhard, Corey Kispert and Drew Timme, while the Jayhawks had Christian Braun, Jalen Wilson and Ochai Agbaji. Gonzaga built a lead, watched Kansas claw back to tie it at 56-56 on Wilson’s free throw, then answered with a 22-7 run late to close out a 102-90 win.
Timme scored 25, Suggs had 24 and Kispert added 23, giving Gonzaga 72 combined points from its top three scorers. The victory was also Few’s 600th career win.
More recently, Gonzaga has used openers to make a statement. Yale came to Spokane in 2023 with a team that didn’t look like a routine warm-up.
The Bulldogs were projected to win the Ivy League, had already been to the NIT, and brought a roster featuring future first-round pick Danny Wolf along with John Poulakidas and Bez Mbeng, both of whom would go on to play in the NBA. Yale jumped out to a double-digit lead before the first media timeout, but Gonzaga answered with a 10-point run to tie it at 16-16.
The lead changed hands eight times in the first half before the home team took a five-point edge into halftime and gradually pulled away. Braden Huff scored 19 points on 7 of 10 shooting, one of five Gonzaga players in double figures, and the Bulldogs stretched the lead to as many as 21 in the second half.
A year later, Baylor got the full force of Gonzaga’s opener firepower. The Bears were ranked No. 8 in the preseason poll, with Gonzaga at No. 6, and betting services had Few’s team favored by six at Numerica Veterans Arena.
Baylor scored first on Norchad Omier’s free throw, and then Gonzaga took over. The Bulldogs scored eight straight, leaned on Dusty Stromer’s 3-point shooting and moved in front by double digits on a layup from Huff.
By halftime, Gonzaga was ahead 49-30, and the margin kept growing until it reached 38 late in the second half. Nolan Hickman led the Bulldogs with 17 points, five Gonzaga players finished in double figures, and Ryan Nembhard piled up 11 assists in the 101-63 rout.
Monday’s win over Purdue fit somewhere between those extremes: not a blowout, not a nail-biter from start to finish, but a game Gonzaga controlled long enough to survive the final push. The 15th-ranked Zags led for 35 minutes and looked like the better team most of the night, but they still had to make free throws and wait out an offensive lull from Purdue to finish the job.
Davis Fogle led Gonzaga with 22 points, while Purdue center Daniel Jacobsen matched him with 22 of his own despite second-half foul trouble. Xaivian Lee, making his Gonzaga debut, added 18 points and hit three crucial free throws late to help close it out.
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