No. 21 Gonzaga set for first true nonconference test against ‘smart’ and ‘old’ Oklahoma team
Mark Few, of all people, understands the heavy lift that comes with transforming a low-major college basketball program into a perennial NCAA Tournament contender.
Few is at the forefront of any conversation when it comes to that subject matter, but the 27th-year Gonzaga coach has deep appreciation and admiration for anyone else who’s had success putting a smaller school on the national college basketball map.
So, flattering comments from Few about Oklahoma’s Porter Moser, the architect of multiple Cinderella runs at Loyola Chicago, came as no surprise five days before a high-profile nonconference game between the 21st-ranked Zags (1-0) and Sooners (1-0) at the Arena. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and ESPN2 will carry the live broadcast.
“Porter went out and did a really nice job getting some guys in the portal and he’s got them playing together,” Few said after Gonzaga’s 98-43 win over Texas Southern. “I think he’s one of the really, really excellent coaches that are out there that probably doesn’t get as much pub as he should. He’s a heckuva coach.”
After Gonzaga broke onto the national stage with a run to the Elite Eight in the late 1990s, Butler and VCU were at the center of the sport’s next small-school success stories in the early 2000s.
The next breakthrough took place in 2017-18, when Moser guided Loyola Chicago to a 32-win season and unexpected trip to the Final Four. The Ramblers weren’t able to replicate Gonzaga’s longevity on the national stage, but their storybook run wasn’t a flash in the pan either. Moser’s teams won 20 or more games each of the next three seasons and went back to the Sweet 16 in 2020-21 before the coach replaced Lon Kruger at Oklahoma.
Many still associate Moser with his time at Loyola Chicago, but the 57-year-old has since led consecutive 20-win seasons at Oklahoma and made his first NCAA Tournament appearance at the SEC school in 2024-25 as a No. 9 seed.
The Zags may have bumped into the Sooners a couple times roaming the halls of the Atlantis Hotel at last year’s Battle 4 Atlantis – a Thanksgiving week tournament OU won – but GU won’t recognize too many of the faces on Moser’s new roster.
The Sooners, not unlike Gonzaga and most teams across the country, are still searching for their identity after losing four starters and three of the four bench players that appeared in a first-round NCAA Tournament loss to UConn. The group of outgoing Sooners included dynamic guard Jeremiah Fears, who was selected No. 7 overall in the 2025 NBA draft by the New Orleans Pelicans.
Efforts to replace that crew led Moser to the transfer portal, where OU signed one of the highest-rated classes in the country. The Sooners added Saint Joseph’s guard Xzayvier Brown (17.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg in 2024-25), Miami guard Nijel Pack (13.9 ppg, 4.3 apg), Alabama small forward Derrion Reid (7.0 ppg, 20 bpg) and Notre Dame small forward Tae Davis (9.2 ppg, 5.1 rpg).
The group was rated as the No. 6 transfer class in the country by On3, No. 8 by ESPN and No. 11 by 247Sports.com. Brown, Pack, Reid and Davis combined for 50 points in an 84-83 exhibition win over Wisconsin and accounted for 53 more in a 102-66 win over Saint Francis to open the season.
“They’ve had a heckuva offseason,” Few said. “They went out and got some really, really good transfers. It seems like they’ve done a nice job meshing together. They’ve won both their exhibitions against really, really good teams and I believe they’ve both been on the road. They’ll be old, they’ll be smart and I think that’s going to be a really, really tough game.”
“Old” and “smart” would be fitting adjectives in an analysis of Few’s team, too.
GU’s oldest player, Tyon Grant-Foster, led the Zags with 15 points against Texas Southern and won’t be walking into an unfamiliar environment when he takes the floor at the Arena. Grant-Foster’s Zag career may be just two games old, but he has prior playing experience at the downtown Spokane venue, scoring 51 points with 15 rebounds in 2024 NCAA Tournament games against Saint Mary’s and Alabama.
“I’ve just got a real good track record in that gym,” Grant-Foster said. “Hopefully it carries over. I played in there before and played good games, so I just feel like when we get in there, I’ve just got to keep adjusting to these guys and I feel like we’re going to be really good.”
Gonzaga has a strong track record against Oklahoma and in recent games at the Arena. The Zags have won the last three contests against the Sooners, including an 2021 NCAA Tournament Round of 32 matchup at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. GU’s 87-71 win set up a Sweet 16 matchup against Creighton.
Coincidentally, the 23rd-ranked Bluejays are next up on the Zags’ nonconference schedule, visiting the Kennel on Tuesday. Tying everything together, Moser, Oklahoma’s fifth-year coach, was a two-year starter at Creighton in the late 1980s who began his coaching career as a Bluejays assistant in 1990-91.
Few’s teams have won high-profile nonleague games at the Arena two of the last three seasons, opening the 2024-25 campaign with a 101-63 rout of No. 7 Baylor and cruising to an 88-72 win over Kentucky in 2022-23. The Zags beat the Sooners 83-69 at the Arena in 2009.
“That’s what I came here for,” Grant-Foster said. “I didn’t come here to play some mediocre teams. I came here to play the best teams with the best guys, so I just feel like we’re ready. Obviously we’ve got some tuning up to do, but I just feel like the competition is going to get better and so are we, each game.”
Oklahoma Mohamed Wague is Moser’s only returning starter and the 6-foot-10 senior is likely the team’s best counter to Gonzaga’s talented frontcourt of Graham Ike and Braden Huff. It’s unclear if Sooners freshman Kai Rogers, a 6-foot-10 forward and former top-120 recruit, will be available on Saturday after missing the opener with an injury.
“These are like SEC bigs, or even better,” Moser said of GU’s frontcourt earlier this week on the “Tyler Neal is Checking In” podcast. “Ike is one of the best bigs in the country. You just don’t see a lot of teams pound it inside to two guys as much as the Zags. They’ve always done that.”
