Gonzaga opens the 2025-26 season tonight in Spokane, hosting Texas Southern at 6:00 p.m. inside the McCarthey Athletic Center. The game airs on KHQ in the Spokane/North Idaho region and streams on ESPN+
for out-of-market viewers, with radio coverage on 96.1 FM and the Varsity Network app.
It’s here. It’s finally here. Another season, another willing trip into the emotional woodchipper that is Gonzaga basketball. But this year feels different. This team has range, personality, and versatility we haven’t seen in Spokane since… I don’t even know when. A roster built to win games in more ways than one, with pieces that don’t fit a template and combinations that could take all season to fully understand.
The lights flip on in the Kennel tonight and Gonzaga steps into its 2025-26 season with a familiar weight: national expectations, an ambitious nonconference slate, and a roster brimming with talent that fans have waited more than a year to actually see on the floor. Tipoff against Texas Southern marks the program’s 26th season under Mark Few and the beginning of its final run through the WCC before joining the rebuilt Pac-12 next year.
Tonight marks the public debut of a rotation shaped by delayed arrivals and accumulated promise. Steele Venters finally returns to real action after back-to-back season-ending injuries, Braeden Smith and Jalen Warley graduate from redshirt roles into central responsibilities, and transfers Tyon Grant-Foster and Adam Miller bring athletic scoring punch to the perimeter. Anchoring it all, Graham Ike and Braden Huff enter as one of the most productive big tandems in college basketball after combining for more than 28 points per game last season .
Meet the Texas Southern Tigers
Texas Southern arrives with experience and confidence from a 12-win SWAC campaign and returns three of its top five scorers, including All-SWAC guard Zaire Hayes, a steady shooter who gives the Tigers a lead-option threat on the perimeter. History favors Gonzaga here: the Zags have never dropped a regular-season opener inside the Kennel under Few and have stacked more than three decades of wins in home openers . But the value tonight lies less in the margin and more in the early answers: how the backcourt meshes, which wings seize the first claim on minutes, how well this group defends in space, and how quickly roles begin to solidify before Oklahoma and Creighton hit the schedule within days.
The Tigers finished 15-17 last year with a top-half SWAC record, built around veteran guards who value poise, pace management. Their approach leans into structure: multiple actions, late-clock execution, and a willingness to absorb pressure without surrendering shape.
The headline threat is graduate guard Zaire Hayes, a preseason All-conference pick and efficient shooter who averaged double-figures and punished coverage lapses from deep last season. Flanked by experienced pieces and a defensive philosophy built on physicality and second-chance denial, Texas Southern arrives with ample experience and the maturity necessary to make mistakes expensive and tempo-drift uncomfortable. They don’t need fireworks to stay in contact, just patience, execution, and a handful of moments where veteran guards can settle in and dictate tempo.
Here are some storylines to follow as the Zags open the 25-26 season against Texas Southern.
Innocenti vs. Miller at the two
Gonzaga’s second exhibition game against Western Oregon gave the first real look at how minutes at the 2-spot might stack this season. Emmanuel Innocenti got the start after sitting out the Bulldogs’ first exhibition matchup with a minor hip issue, and he immediately tightened everything for the Zags defensively. In 13 minutes, he put up 3 steals, 3 assists, and went 3-for-3 from the field while organizing coverages and pushing pace off stops. Adam Miller played the off-ball guard in his own way: 14 minutes, 4-for-6 shooting, 2-for-4 from deep, 2 steals, and clear offensive juice anytime he touched the ball. Innocenti raises the defensive floor and demands opponents work for clean looks inside-out. Miller stretches the floor, hunts space, and gives the offense another gear off the dribble. Both contributed. Both will keep playing. And in the early going, the separation comes in who dictates the terms of the game when they are on the floor, not who scores first.
Will we keep living in the Fogleverse?!
Two exhibitions are a tiny sample, but Davis Fogle has made them feel anything but. Across those first looks, he has put up 31 points in 41 minutes on 9-for-15 shooting and hit 13 of 15 at the line. He has turned the ball over just once and has drawn 10 fouls from opposing defenses. He has stacked stretches where he looks like the most dangerous player on the floor, not just for his age or role, but outright, literally, the best player on the floor. Shot-making, poise, physical readiness, zero hesitation. The moment has not found a crack yet.
Everyone should be thrilled Tyon Grant-Foster is cleared and Steele Venters is finally back. Those are huge additions and both dudes will get their crack at a spot on the wing. The question now is whether either one plays their way past what Fogle has already shown in live action. Through Kraziness and two exhibitions, no one outside the starting bigs has strung together more consistent impact. Lineups don’t settle in November, but the early film tells a simple truth: Fogle is not playing to belong, he is playing to stay in the rotation from day one. If that continues tonight, the staff has a real minute-distribution decision on its hands.
Perimeter reality check
Gonzaga’s shooting outlook on paper is strong, but the exhibition results were mixed. Steele Venters and Adam Miller project as the roster’s most reliable floor spacers, yet they combined to go 4-for-16 from three across the two exhibition matchups against Northwestern University and Western Oregon. As a group, the Zags finished 11-for-36 from deep, right around 30 percent. Early-season legs and lineup tinkering explain part of it, but the shots need to fall as the schedule stiffens.
The positive sign: the staff does not need to live or die by the three. If Miller is not hitting, Emmanuel Innocenti brings defensive control and ball pressure. If Venters needs time to play into rhythm after two lost seasons, Tyon Grant Foster brings explosiveness and length to the spot. Meanwhile, Davis Fogle has already shown he can score in multiple ways and get to the line consistently if all else fails. Gonzaga has range shooters, slashing wings, and defenders who can change tempo without needing to score. This opener offers the first real look at how those combinations stack when the lights go on.
Reading Tea Leaves
One quiet subplot tonight sits at the back of the rotation. If the Zags pull away early and the walk-ons check in during garbage time but Parker Jefferson stays on the bench, that’s the clearest early sign this could be a developmental redshirt year for the freshman big. With Jalen Warley showing muscle and skill at the small-ball 4 in recent tilts and with Tyon Grant Foster now fully eligible to step in as necessary, Gonzaga suddenly has depth at the power-forward spot, and nothing forces urgency here. The staff has leaned into the long game with talented bigs before, and a season focused on growth instead of minutes has paid off a lot and far more often than not. If Jefferson is watching from the bench instead of playing late, that usually tells you what the plan is, regardless of what gets said publicly.
The good news: a redshirted Jefferson alongside Ismaila Diagne and incoming 2027 commit Sam Funches is a front line worth waiting for. If tonight confirms the long view, the program’s history suggests the payoff comes sooner than people expect.
Unlimited combinations, unknown ceiling
The most striking thing about this Gonzaga roster is how little anyone can say with certainty about what the best version looks like, and that has nothing to do with doubt. It is a product of versatility stacked on versatility. Nearly every rotation-level player can slide a position in either direction, handle a different responsibility, or change the shape of a lineup simply by being on the floor. There are wings who can initiate offense, guards who can defend up a spot, bigs who can stretch or bully depending on the ask, and freshmen who already look matchup-proof. There have been skilled Gonzaga teams, there have been deep Gonzaga teams, but there has never been one with this many levers to pull.
That freedom also means the picture may never fully settle. This group has the talent to score in different ways, guard in different configurations, and win fights that look nothing alike. The season opener will not deliver final answers. It should, however, show how many different doors this team can walk through with the right dudes in the right spots at the right moments. That might be the most exciting part.
