Report: Gonzaga, UCLA men's basketball finalizing two-year neutral site series

UCLA and Gonzaga are reportedly set to face one another in a two-year series on the basketball court, according to Jon Rothstein.

He broke news Thursday afternoon that the schools’ respective men’s basketball teams are set to square off in Los Angeles this upcoming 2024-25 season with a return game in Seattle in 2025-26. Here was his report of that development:

“UCLA and Gonzaga are finalizing an agreement to meet next season at Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, multiple sources told College Hoops Today. There will be a return game in Seattle during the 2025-26 season. Official dates and times are TBD.”

A nice little series for these two west coast powerhouses, especially for Gonzaga, who can always use some extra quality games in the non-conference before disappearing from the national picture for two months to beat up on those poor West Coast Conference foes.

However, neither squad lived up to their expectations or recent performance last season, with UCLA getting off to a terrible start in 2023-24 before rebounding towards the end to break even in the Pac-12 with a 10-10 record, but they achieved just a 16-17 mark on the season as a whole after losing much of their production from the season before.

As for Gonzaga, they still made the NCAA Tournament with ease, but were far from the national title contender that they were particularly in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. The Zags still earned a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16 — their NINTH straight trip to the second weekend. So, all told, Mark Few still has that engine humming in Spokane, even if the program tied for its most losses in a season since 2011.

Heading into next season, though, both programs return several of their top players while having added some major pieces through the transfer portal.

The Zags added a real flamethrower in former Arkansas wing Khalif Battle, a high-volume shooter who put up solid numbers with the Hogs despite a poor season on the court for the team. He gives Few an outside shooting spark and bucket-getter the team often lacked in 2024.

The Bruins nabbed a terrific defender and high-upside guy in USC’s Kobe Johnson, and added another wing in former Oklahoma State guy Eric Dailey. They also grabbed Skyy Clark, who like Battle, put up with a miserable year on the court with Louisville but has always showed flashes of his high pedigree coming out of high school.

With improved rosters in 2024-25, expect a terrific matchup in LA this coming season between these two squads.