Preview: Zags Opener vs Purdue

Zags Day has arrived! The 2026–27 team is ready to show the country what they have tonight, as we hope to go full circle in our first year in the Pac-12 by starting with a win in Vegas and finishing the regular season up with a win to take our inaugural year in the Pac. Tonight will be a dogfight with a recent familiar foe from the Midwest in Purdue, who, like us in Spokane, have a huge turnaround roster and are looking to replace a legend who moved along to the league. Let's take an in-depth look into the 3 keys to a Zag victory tonight.

1. Defend the 3pt line

Usually, beating Purdue starts with your paint defense, but this year it's going to be the reverse, as it is a team stacked with shooters led by CJ Cox, who, similar to Davis Fogle, is expected to make a major jump in production for the Boilermakers. 3pt defense has been an issue for the Zags over the past couple of seasons on and off, including in our scrimmage against Arkansas who shot 12-25. Purdue will look to launch 30-plus, and if we allow 50% to go in, this will be a long night in Vegas.

2. Win the Rebound battle

So this goes hand in hand with the 3pt shooting: the easiest threes seem to always come on 2nd-chance looks. If the Zags don't corral the first shot, then the Purdue shooters are gonna get even better looks to knock down. If we can hold down the paint on both ends of the court, then this will put them at a major disadvantage and cause them to feel they need to force up shots, playing right into our gameplan.

3. Fogle & Harwell efficiently aggressive

The scoring punch pressure needs to not be all on our bigs in Braden Huff, Massamba Diop, and Izan Almansa. Still, though, Davis Fogle & Isiah Harwell have to be smart about their attempts. Both have been very efficient through the scrimmages with their shot selections; this was a major trait for Fogle last year and I hope it continues this season. While ideally we want them eclipsing the 15-point mark each, we don't want it to take 15–20 shots each. If they can be the threat we want them to be, this opens up the paint for our bigs to feast even more.

Prediction: Gonzaga 78, Purdue 73

I think we break our Purdue curse tonight, as they are one of the few "big boys" we have yet to take down, sitting at 0-5 all-time. This one, though, is a game where I think we hold the advantage or are equal to across the board except for 3pt shooting, so if we can force this team into taking more 2s than 3s, I feel more confident in us winning that style of game against the Boilermakers. The season, as usual under Mark Few for the Zags, does not start with a gimme, so the boys will need to be focused from tip to buzzer to start the year 1-0.