The 2017–18 Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball team represented Gonzaga University in the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was led by head coach Mark Few, who was in his 19th season as head coach. The team played its home games at McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane, Washington. This was the Bulldogs' (also informally referred to as the Zags) 38th season as a member of the West Coast Conference. They finished the season 32–5, 17–1 in WCC play to win the WCC regular season championship. They defeated Loyola Marymount, San Francisco and BYU to become champions of the WCC tournament. They received the WCC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, where they defeated UNC Greensboro and Ohio State to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, where they lost to Florida State.
The last weeks of the season were played against the backdrop of a potential Gonzaga move to the Mountain West Conference (MW), first publicly reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune on February 28, 2018. MW commissioner Craig Thompson told the newspaper that the league had discussed expansion with six schools, with Gonzaga the only school he specifically named. Thompson added that Gonzaga could potentially join as a full but non-football member as early as the 2018–19 school year. A later Union-Tribune report indicated that talks were advanced enough that the conference's presidents planned a vote on an invitation to Gonzaga during the MW men's and women's basketball tournaments in Las Vegas, but decided to delay the vote until after the Final Four. However, before the MW's planned vote, Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth notified both conferences that Gonzaga would remain in the WCC for the immediate future.
Previous season
The Bulldogs team finished the 2016–17 season 37–2, 17–1 in WCC play. This was arguably the greatest season in Gonzaga's 109-year basketball history. The Bulldogs finished with a 32–1 regular season record and did not lose a game until February. They finished ranked second in the final AP Poll, the highest final national ranking in school history. They won both the WCC regular season and tournament championships. As a result, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and a received a No. 1 seed in the West region. They advanced to the first NCAA National Championship game in the school's history—the deepest run for a WCC team since San Francisco advanced to its third consecutive Final Four in 1957, and also the deepest run by any Division I school without a football team since Seton Hall made the championship game in 1989. With a victory over South Carolina in the national semifinal, the Bulldogs tied the NCAA Division I record for the second-most wins in a season. Their run ended in the NCAA National Championship game, where they lost to North Carolina.
Offseason
Coaching changes
Departures Name Position Year atGonzaga Alma mater (year) Reason for departure Director of basketball Ooerations 3rd Trinity International (1999) Assistant coach at Baylor Special assistant to the head coach 1st Seattle Pacific (1982) Associate head coach at Pepperdine
Additions to staff Name Position Year atGonzaga Alma mater (year) Previous job Director of basketball operations 1st Gonzaga (2006) Director of player development at Oklahoma State
Player departures Johnathan Williams had entered the NBA draft but did not hire an agent, giving him the option to return to Gonzaga. He withdrew from the draft on May 24, the last day he could do so to retain NCAA eligibility. Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Reason for departure C 300 (redshirt) Toruń, Poland Graduated G 173 (redshirt) Longview, WA Graduated G 203 San Francisco, CA Completed athletic eligibility; graduated from California in 2016 G 195 (redshirt) Happy Valley, OR Graduated; declared for 2017 NBA draft; selected 55th overall by the Utah Jazz C 295 (redshirt) Kalispell, MT Graduated; transferred to Portland State G 180 (redshirt) Vancouver, BC Graduated; transferred to Western Oregon G 198 (redshirt) Northridge, CA Graduated; transferred to Long Beach State C 230 Las Vegas, NV Declared for 2017 NBA draft; selected 10th overall by the Sacramento Kings
Incoming transfers Name Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Previousschool Yearsremaining Dateeligible F 210 Phoenix, AZ San Jose State 2 Oct. 1, 2018 G 205 Overland Park, KS Johnson County CC 3 Oct. 1, 2017
2017 recruiting class
2017 returning missionaries Jesse Wade graduated high school in 2015, but before enrolling in college at Gonzaga, he left for a two-year LDS mission in Lyon, France, and would arrive on campus as a freshman in the fall of 2017.
Future recruits
Recruiting class of 2018
Roster Roster is subject to change as/if players transfer or leave the program for other reasons.
Coaching staff Name Position Year atGonzaga Alma mater (year) Mark Few Head coach 19th Oregon (1987) Tommy Lloyd Associate head coach 17th Whitman (1998) Donny Daniels Assistant coach 8th Cal State Fullerton (1976) Brian Michaelson Assistant coach 5th Gonzaga (2005) Ken Nakagawa Graduate assistant 2nd Long Beach State (2014) Stephen Gentry Director of basketball operations 1st Gonzaga (2006) Riccardo Fois Director of analytics 4th Pepperdine (2009) Josh Therrien Athletic trainer 2nd Washington State (2007) Travis Knight Strength and conditioning coach 12th Gonzaga (2000)
Schedule and results
Gonzaga's non-conference schedule included matchups with Washington and San Diego State on the road. Gonzaga hosted Creighton, Texas Southern, and Incarnate Word at home. Gonzaga battled Villanova on a neutral court at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic. The Zags were invited to play in the PK80: Phil Knight Invitational, where they played against Florida, Ohio State, and Texas. The Zags played in the single-elimination WCC Tournament, which took place in March 2018 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
!colspan=12 style=| Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=| WCC regular season
!colspan=12 style=| WCC Tournament
!colspan=12 style=| NCAA tournament
Rankings
^Coaches did not release a Week 2 poll. *AP does not release post-NCAA tournament rankings.
Notes
References