Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs boast the fourth-longest active winning streak in college basketball, rattling off 15 in a row spanning the entirety of December and January.
The Zags sit at 22-1 overall and a perfect 10-0 in conference play, well on their way to winning the WCC one final time before moving to the new look Pac-12 in 2026-27.
Last week, coming off a too-close-for-comfort 68-66 win over San Francisco, the Zags were dropped to a No. 3 seed in Joe Lunardi's weekly bracketology report. However, the return of Graham Ike and his outstanding 30-point performance in a win over rival Saint Mary's on Saturday has Gonzaga back where they have been most of the season: on the No. 2 seed line.
Lunardi's updated report on Tuesday projected Gonzaga as a No. 2 seed in the West region, where they would open up the NCAA Tournament at the Moda Center in Portland, OR, against No. 15 seed UT Martin, the projected automatic qualifier in the Ohio Valley conference.
The Skyhawks are 17-5 overall and 9-2 in league play, with a pair of respectable non-conference wins at UNLV and at Bradley. They played just one power conference team this year – Florida State – and lost 87-73.
Lunardi has Gonzaga set up for a second-round matchup against the winner between No. 7 Auburn and No. 10 Indiana. Auburn was a Final Four team last year thanks to All-American Johni Broome, but lost a ton of key players as well as coach Bruce Pearl, who handed the reins off to his son Steven just before the season began.
Meanwhile, Indiana is coached by former West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries, who led the Mountaineers to a win over Gonzaga last year in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Darian's son, Tucker DeVries, joins Ike as the only other 2,000-point scorer currently in college basketball.
Unsurprisingly, Gonzaga's run to the Final Four would have to go through Arizona, the No. 1 overall seed, setting up an epic matchup between longtime colleagues and friends Mark Few and Tommy Lloyd.
Other top seeds in the region include No. 3 Michigan State, No. 4 Vanderbilt, and No. 5 St. John's.
After losing to Gonzaga on Saturday, Saint Mary's fell to a projected No. 10 seed in the South Region, drawing a first-round matchup against No. 7 Texas A&M – continuing a trend of the Gaels facing SEC teams in the big dance.
Meanwhile, Santa Clara remains in the bubble conversation, listed as the final team in Lunardi's 'first four out' category alongside Virginia Tech, Cal, and Seton Hall.
Other Gonzaga opponents in the field of 68 include Michigan (1 seed), Alabama (5), Kentucky (7), and UCLA (10).
Gonzaga will play twice on the road this week, first on Wednesday at the Chiles Center against the Portland Pilots. Tip time is 7:00 PM PT and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
MORE GONZAGA NEWS & ANALYSIS
- Gonzaga contacts 6'9 five-star recruit in 2027 class
- Chet Holmgren joins exclusive group as third Gonzaga alum named NBA All-Star
- Gonzaga passed over by three-loss team in latest AP Top 25 update
- Emmanuel Innocenti was Gonzaga's unsung hero in massive win over Saint Mary's
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/gonzaga as After win over Saint Mary's, Gonzaga moves up seed line in latest Bracketology report.