The 2022-2023 WCC matchups for the Gonzaga Bulldogs have been announced, and the Zags will play Steve Lavin’s San Diego Toreros and the Pacific Tigers just once during the league’s 16-game schedule.
For the last few seasons the WCC has used a formula that includes NET ranking, WCC tournament seeding, and a survey of the coaches to determine the matchups and which teams will only play each other once during the regular season.
The WCC flirted with going back to a more traditional 18-game schedule, something Mark Few and Randy Bennett almost certainly would have been against, but they are sticking with 16 for now allowing everyone to add more games to their non-conference slate.
Gonzaga and San Diego will face off in Spokane, and this will mark the second time these two teams have only faced each other once in conference play.
Lavin’s Toreros could be among the more promising teams in the conference after making multiple key additions via the transfer portal – including Stanford’s Jaiden Delaire and Oregon’s Eric Williams.
Gonzaga will head to Stockton to take on Pacific in their lone matchup of the season. They were scheduled to play twice last year but the game in Stockton was cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols.
Meanwhile, this is great news for the upstart Portland Pilots, who will play Gonzaga twice for the first time since the 17-18 season. Under new coach Shantay Legans, the Pilots finished sixth in the WCC and defeated the Toreros in the WCC Tournament before falling to Santa Clara.
The actual dates of every WCC game will be announced at a later time.
Andy hosts the Locked on Zags and Locked on College Basketball podcasts, and serves Locked On in a marketing/digital content creator role as well. He lives just outside Portland with his wife Jenna and dog, Tillie.