College Basketball Game of the Week: No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 5 Texas
With the NCAA college basketball season now officially underway, one game many are looking forward to is the upcoming showdown between the top ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs and the No. 5 Texas Longhorns.
Both teams unsurprisingly opened the season with easy wins over Dixie State and Houston Baptist, respectively, but now the two preseason powerhouses will look to earn a huge win early in the season.
For Gonzaga, after an extremely successful 2020-2021 season where they did not lose until the National Championship game to Baylor, the Bulldogs will look to continue their winning ways against a much-improved Texas team.
The Longhorns brought in a ton of new faces this season, in addition to their senior backcourt duo of Andrew Jones and Courtney Ramey.
Ramey will enter his fourth season with Texas this year, while Jones, who has overcome quite a lot in his college career, enters his sixth and final season for the Longhorns.
New head coach Chris Beard, who had plenty of success at Texas Tech, is bringing a large number of talented transfer players to Texas this season.
Whether it is talented scoring guard Marcus Carr, a quality low-post player in Timmy Allen, or a versatile big like Tre Mitchell, Texas certainly did plenty to improve its lineup in the offseason.
However, the Longhorns can’t quite compete with the acquisition that Gonzaga made last spring.
The Zags brought in center Chet Holmgren, ESPN’s top high school recruit in the class of 2021.
Holmgren is not a traditional big man, he has fantastic skills as a scorer, and should form a formidable frontcourt pairing with the returning Drew Timme, who had a phenomenal campaign a year ago in his own right.
Gonzaga will certainly be favored, but Texas should be able to hang with the Bulldogs thanks to their notable depth as a team.
However, the star power for Gonzaga might just prove to be too much for the Longhorns early in this collegiate season.
Joe Tuman is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email him at joentuman@gmail.com
