Gonzaga’s unbeaten start has the Bulldogs moving in the right direction in the AP Top 25, even if the climb was a small one.
After opening the 2026-27 season with wins over Purdue in Las Vegas and New Mexico State at home on Saturday, Mark Few’s team checked in at No. 14 in this week’s poll, up one spot from where it began. The move came with Miami sliding from No. 14 to No. 17 after its opening-day loss to Florida.
The Zags are 2-0 and could keep rising when they face Will Wade and LSU on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Spokane Arena. LSU is also unbeaten at 2-0, though it did not receive any AP votes this week.
There’s no shortage of ranked opponents ahead for Gonzaga either. UCLA made one of the week’s biggest jumps, climbing from No. 22 to No. 9 after beating Arizona in Las Vegas, right after Gonzaga’s win over Purdue. That puts the Bruins alongside Duke at No. 2 and Michigan State at No. 5 as top-10 teams on the Zags’ schedule.
Other possible Player’s Era Festival matchups are also sitting in the poll. Miami is at No.
17, Alabama at No. 18 and Michigan at No. 20, while Baylor picked up 14 votes. Creighton and Utah State each received one vote after strong starts of their own.
All of that comes as Gonzaga continues to sort through a roster that was reshaped over the offseason. The Bulldogs brought back only Braden Huff and Davis Fogle, then added a wave of new faces: transfers Xaivian Lee, Massamba Diop and Isiah Harwell, plus international forward Izan Almansa and guard Nathan de Sousa.
Even with all the roster turnover and eligibility questions, Gonzaga currently has 14 of 15 players available. Florida State transfer forward Chauncey Wiggins remains the lone ineligible player for now.
Wiggins, a 6-foot-10 forward who made 38.7% of his three-point attempts last season, recently filed a lawsuit in Spokane County seeking immediate eligibility. A hearing is set for Nov. 17 at 9:00 AM, just a few hours before Gonzaga hosts Montana State at The Kennel.
If Wiggins gets the same kind of quick turnaround that Tyon Grant-Foster got last year, he could be cleared and available the same day. That would give Gonzaga another experienced shooter and a useful bench piece as the 2026-27 season starts to take shape.
In Other News...
Gonzagas Hot Start Is About To Face A Bigger Test
Seven of the nine Pac-12 basketball teams, including Gonzaga, have opened the season 2-0, giving the league an early surge of momentum as the second week gets going. The conference has also been perfect so far against power conference opponents, with Gonzaga, San Diego State and Boise State all turning in notable wins that have helped build some early credibility beyond the usual November optimism.
For Gonzaga, the fast start has come with a little more substance than just clean box scores, and now the Bulldogs are about to find out a bit more about where they stand. The next step is a Saturday meeting with LSU at Spokane Arena, a matchup that should offer a better gauge of how much this opening stretch really means as the schedule begins to sharpen. [Read more 🡒]
Gonzagas Fast Start Just Raised A Bigger Question About This Team
Gonzagas season opened the way the program usually wants it to, with two wins and a small climb in the latest Associated Press Top 25. The Bulldogs moved up one spot to No. 14, a modest rise that still reflects how quickly the early-season rankings can shift, especially when other teams around the country make noise. UCLA made the biggest leap in the poll after beating Arizona, while the top four stayed put.
For Gonzaga, though, the more important part of the early picture is still ahead. The nonconference schedule is loaded with high-end opponents, the kind that can either validate an early ranking or expose how much work remains. After a clean start, the Bulldogs are about to find out a lot more about themselves once the games get bigger and the margin for error gets smaller. [Read more 🡒]