PORTLAND – The month of January could probably fill a full episode of a reality television series about Gonzaga’s 2025-26 basketball season.
There were injury scares and overtime scares. Gonzaga’s offensive production slipped, failing to clear 80 points in four of the eight games, but the defense surged, holding six of eight opponents under 70. Certain players established themselves – namely Jalen Warley and Davis Fogle – while others drifted out of Mark Few’s rotation. The Zags roared to blowout wins and hung on in games decided by the final possession.
January arrived with twists, turns and too much uncertainty for Gonzaga’s liking, but it also culminated with an 8-0 record. That’s nothing to balk at, nor is a 10-0 mark in West Coast Conference games or the 15-game winning streak sixth-ranked Gonzaga (22-1, 10-0) will carry into February, which opens with Wednesday’s road test against Portland (10-14, 3-8) at the Chiles Center (7 p.m., KHQ).
“To get through January unscathed, especially with all the crazy adversity we’ve had, I was telling somebody the other day we’ve basically had three teams,” Gonzaga’s coach said Sunday on “The Mark Few Show.” “We’ve had the team with Graham (Ike) and (Braden) Huff. We’ve had the team with Graham. We had one game against Washington State. Then we’ve had the team without Graham and Huff, which we totally just had to scrap everything and totally game plan on defense and offense.
“Then we came back to the team with Graham, but we haven’t really had much time to practice with him. Now we need to spend time on this particular group we have.”
No telling on how many more times the Zags will have to reinvent themselves in February, which features five of eight games on the road, three games against teams sitting second, third and fourth in the WCC standings and at least two Quad 1 games that could help or hinder the résumé GU’s building ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
This week’s slate, which concludes with Saturday’s road test at Oregon State (12-12, 5-6), is less about grabbing résumé-boosting wins than it is avoiding résumé-crushing losses.
The Pilots and Beavers respectively rank No. 216 and 212 at KenPom, but both have been solid playing at home. Under the direction of fifth-year coach Shantay Legans, who was previously at Eastern Washington, Portland is 9-4 on the Bluff this season and trailed Saint Mary’s by just a single point with 15 seconds remaining in a 75-69 home loss to the Gaels on Jan. 24.
“Portland has played people really, really well this year in their building,” Few said. “Saint Mary’s was lucky to get out of there with a win just last week. Oregon State’s been great at home and really, really stepped it up and had some big wins. Obviously we lost one down their last year, so this will be a really, really big trip to test our maturity I think to be able to bottle up how we played (against Saint Mary’s) with the energy and toughness on defense and attention to detail and carry us on the road.”
The Pilots don’t have a win over Gonzaga during the Legans era and have lost 20 straight games since 2014. The Zags have won 19 of the 20 games by double figures, including 81-50 and 105-62 blowouts last season.
Portland struggled to replace its top six scorers from last season, but the Pilots might have the top candidate for WCC Freshman of the Year in point guard Joel Foxwell, a 6-foot-1 native of Australia who averages team highs in points per game (15.3) and assists per game (6.8) but also 3.2 turnovers. Foxwell has won WCC Freshman of the Week honors five times this season, more than any other player.
The Pilots, not unlike the Zags, have dealt with adversity on the injury front since WCC play started. Second-leading scorer Timo George hasn’t played since Dec. 30, when he was ruled out for the season with a shoulder injury. Portland had just eight active players in its loss to Saint Mary’s and elevated graduate assistant Sam Noland, who played one minute off the bench against the Gaels.
Gonzaga survived a three-game stretch without both Ike and Huff, but got the former back for Saturday’s eight-point win over Saint Mary’s. Ike scored 30 points in 37 minutes and is averaging 29 ppg in his last three games.
The senior forward said Gonzaga’s approach hasn’t changed even as lineups and rotations have fluctuated the last three to four weeks.
“Same way we’ve approached every single day this season,” Ike said. “Try to find a way to get better. Stay trying to win the day. We’ll go back and watch the film of this game and the next team and we’ll just get ready, day by day.”
