College Hoops

College basketball 2022-23 countdown: No. 2 Gonzaga

John Fanta

Editor’s note: John Fanta is counting down his top 15 college basketball teams leading up to the start of the 2022-23 season. Checking in at No. 2 is Gonzaga.

Few in college basketball have it better than Mark Few. He’s built a dynasty in Spokane that has been an unstoppable freight train, and it has only sped up in the last half-decade. The Bulldogs, who have been to the NCAA Tournament every season there has been one since 1999 (it was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19), will once again contend for the one thing they lack: a national championship.

Gonzaga is 192-18 in its last six seasons and has not lost more than five games in a campaign since 2015-16. The Bulldogs have won at least 28 games in 10 straight seasons and have made seven consecutive appearances in the Sweet 16. To go a step further, the Zags haven’t endured a season with double-digit losses in 11 years.

The ridiculous numbers associated with this program go on and on, and as Gonzaga enters 2022-23, there’s no reason to believe the Bulldogs are going to slow down. 

All-American Drew Timme is back for his senior season. A pair of other starters, Julian Strawther and Rasir Bolton, look poised to take on even bigger roles. Reigning Southern Conference Player of the Year Malachi Smith transferred into the program along with former LSU big man Efton Reid. To add to all of that, the Zags have a couple of former highly-touted recruits who will have a door open for them to step up with Andrew Nembhard and Chet Holmgren gone.

While those two talents are certainly difficult to replace, the Bulldogs bring everybody else back to the core. There’s certainly a case for them to be the preseason No. 1 team in the country — no, don’t overreact to an exhibition loss to Tennessee — and the Zags could very well spend some time in that top spot this season. 

If you’re making an argument that the Bulldogs don’t play in a conference as tough as others, Few does as much as humanly possible to combat that. Gonzaga will play Michigan State, Texas, Kentucky, Purdue or West Virginia (PK 85), Baylor, Alabama and possibly Duke in their non-conference slate. That’s yet another non-conference gauntlet for Gonzaga, and the only one of those games that will be played in Spokane comes against Kentucky, part of a new six-year series agreed upon by Few and John Calipari. 

There are certain things the Zags have to figure out if they are to become a…

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