The No. 23 Gonzaga Bulldogs will head down to the Bay Area tonight for a late-season West Coast Conference showdown against the San Francisco Dons at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2. But instead of the Dons’ on-campus home of the War Memorial Gym, this game will be played at the larger Chase Center, the home of the Golden State Warriors.
USF announced this decision back in September knowing that this would be a marquee, late-season matchup that could attract a large crowd. This is actually the second game that the team has played in the Warriors’ building this season, the first being their 76-58 victory over Minnesota back on November 26. Dons head coach Chris Gerlufsen had some reservations about trading the small, intimate home-court environment of War Memorial for a semi-neutral site that would allow for more Gonzaga fans to attend. However, he did acknowledge that both the exposure and the opportunity for his players to play a big game on an NBA court would be a positive for the program.
This game is a huge matchup for both teams, as it has implications for both the WCC and the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs and Dons are sitting near the top of the league standings and with Saint Mary’s already clinching the No. 1 seed in the WCC Tournament, both teams are still vying for No. 2, where they’d receive a triple-bye straight into the semifinals.
As for the NCAA Tournament, Gonzaga is sitting right on the bubble and a win here would be huge as it would grab just its second Quad 1 victory of the season. San Francisco will most likely have to win the WCC tourney outright to make it to the Big Dance, but a Q1 win over the Zags would be a big boost to its resume.
Gonzaga enters the game as a 3-point favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook, accompanied by a total of 154.5.