Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier and the Zags will be testing themselves during the upcoming non-conference, going up against three (potentially four) opponents who played in the NCAA Tournament last season. That’s not even including the always dangerous Stanford Cardinal, who missed on March Madness for just the first time since 1987.
Here is the full slate for the 2025-26 non-conference:
The matchups that jump off the page are welcoming Stanford to the McCarthey Athletic Center, the neutral site matchup at the famous Sanford Pentagon against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits, the challenges that await at the Gulfcoast Showcase in Florida during Thanksgiving Week (the Indiana Hoosiers and Iowa State Cyclones were in the big Dance in 2024-25), and the two teams from the state of Arizona coming to Spokane (the Grand Canyon Antelopes and Arizona State Sun Devils).
As for the final West Coast Conference slate that begins on December 28th, here are all 18 matchups with the dates and times to be announced later:
Home: Pepperdine Waves, Saint Mary’s Gaels
Away: Santa Clara Broncos, Seattle Redhawks
Home and Away: Loyola Marymount Lions, Pacific Tigers, Oregon State Beavers, Portland Pilots, San Diego Toreros, San Francisco Dons, Washington State Cougars
The WCC Basketball Championship for the Zags will run from March 5th through the 10th at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Yvonne Ejim moving on to greener pastures hurts, no doubt about it. It’s time to look for the new face of the Gonzaga program, and all signs point to the sharpshooting sophomore guard Allie Turner. She is being handed the keys by Fortier after a spectacular freshman campaign.
Turner hit a staggering 105 three-pointers last season, and no returning player in all of women’s college basketball had more. That was the eighth-most by a freshman in NCAA women’s history.
She ended up averaging 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game last season. Turner finished as one of only three players in the sport to average at least 3.0 three-pointers made per game on 45.0 percent from beyond the arc.
The sky is now the limit for Turner and the rest of her teammates (including her new backcourt partner, Spokane native and Boise State Broncos transfer Teryn Gardner) as they embark on the journey back to the NCAA Tournament, something they missed out on in 2024-25.
Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area… Follow him on X @a_cravalho
