SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The WCC will have a new look in 2024-25, with the addition of Oregon State and Washington State as affiliate members, and while there will be many questions on how this will shake up the conference, one piece of the puzzle that will be the 2024-25 season has fallen into place, as conference matchup dates have been announced.
With the addition of two more schools, conference play will now start the weekend prior to New Year's Day. The Gaels will open up WCC play at home against the Pacific Tigers on 12/28. The Tigers finished in the cellar of the WCC in 2023-24, winless in each of their final 17 contests, but new Head Coach Dave Smart has brought in a brand new team who hope to have a strong upstart year in the conference.
The Gaels will be the lone WCC school to be off on 12/30, but will return to action on 1/2, hosting another team in the midst of a rebuild, the Pepperdine Waves. The Waves brought in Head Coach Ed Schilling to guide their men's hoops program, and like Pacific, will hope that they will see improvements from a 13-20 campaign last year. The second week of WCC play will round out on 1/4 with the Gaels first roadtrip of the New Year, heading to Portland. Head Coach Shantay Legans enters his fourth season at the helm after what was his worst season leading the Pilots, but returns three young stars from last year's squad that could help Portland take a leap into the mix in the WCC.
It will be an extremely quick turnaround for the Gaels, who will likely return home from Portland on the evening of 1/4 and will be back to action on 1/7, hosting LMU. The Lions had a less than stellar 2023-24 campaign, but took the Gaels down to the wire in both of their meetings last season, falling to SMC by four and five points in their two meetings respectively. Four days later, the Gaels will head south to San Diego for a 1/11 meeting at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. The Toreros made a big jump between years one and two under the direction of Steve Lavin, and will hope to keep that trajectory going in 2024-25.
The Gaels will have their first week long lay-off, but will be back in Southern California on 1/18, getting a second look at the Pepperdine Waves, this time in Malibu. The Gaels will wrap up their meetings with the Waves midway through January this season, after not seeing the Waves a first time until February 15 last year.
The meat and potatoes of the Gaels conference schedule begins on 1/23, as they host San Francisco. Last season's third place finisher in the WCC, the Dons gave the Gaels a scare at home last season, but Saint Mary's narrowly edged out USF 70-66 inside UCU Pavilion. The Dons do return a trio of starters from last season. For the first time in program history, the Gaels will play in Pullman, for a 1/25 matchup with new WCC foe, the Washington State Cougars. The Cougs might have been an NCAA Tournament team, but lost their Head Coach and all five of their starters from last season, so there are quite a bit of questions about their squad under the first year direction of Head Coach David Riley.
From one tough week to another, the Gaels will close out January with a 1/29 meeting at Santa Clara. The Gaels saw the Broncos three times last season, sweeping them in all three contests, however, Santa Clara is looking for their fifth straight 20+ win season under Head Coach Herb Sendek (COVID-19 Shortened 2020-21 season not included). After a tough matchup to end the month of January, things don't get easier in February, as the Zags make their way to town on 2/1. Gonzaga was the only WCC foe to beat Saint Mary's last season, doing so to close out the regular season inside UCU Pavilion last year. There will be many new faces on both of these sides this season, but tensions will remain high in what has proven to be one of the best rivalries in all of mid-major basketball.
The Gaels will be on the road for both 2/6 and 2/8, first making the short trek to San Francisco, followed by a longer trip to Corvallis. The Gaels will hope to sweep the Dons for the fifth consecutive season, which should be no easy task. Coach Chris Gerlufsen's squad has been knocking at the door behind the Gaels and Zags for each of the last two seasons. That's followed up with SMC's first trip to Corvallis since 1968. Wayne Tinkle is back for year 11 with the Beavers, and returns starting four man Michael Rataj who he will turn to to lead a newer squad in the first season in the WCC.
Saint Mary's longest homestand of the conference season will begin on 2/11, as they play host to Santa Clara, looking for another regular season sweep of the Broncos. That will be another quick three day road to home turnaround, as the Gaels will have just returned from Corvallis before hosting the Broncos. On 2/15, the Gaels welcome Washington State to Moraga for the first time since 2009. The homestand ends on 2/19 with Portland coming to town.
The Gaels head to hostile territory, back to Spokane and the Kennel for then first time since their epic win over the Zags last February. While the Kennel is one of the toughest places to play in all of college basketball, the Gaels have bested Gonzaga there multiple times including in 2024, 2018, 2016 and 2011.
The final road game of the regular season will be at Gersten Pavilion against LMU, a place where the Gaels have had trouble in each of the last two seasons, winning by just four last year, and falling by four in overtime in 2023. The final home matchup of the season will be against Oregon State, as the Gaels will celebrate Senior Day against their new conference foes, the Beavers.
#GaelsRise
Print Friendly Version
