After dominant win, Gonzaga now top ranked team at KenPom

Mark Few and Gonzaga are 5-0 on the season with three wins over power conference opponents

Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few. | Photo by Erik Smith

It's been a few years since Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs were ranked No. 1 in the college basketball AP Poll, but this year's team certainly looks capable of ending the streak.

While the Zags still have a ways to go after coming in at No. 13 in Monday's updated poll, the computers are already a step ahead. After Monday's massive 72-point win over Southern Utah in Spokane - the program's largest margin of victory over a DI opponent - Gonzaga moved from No. 2 to No. 1 in KenPom's ratings, passing the Duke Blue Devils for the top spot in college hoops.

Duke fell to No. 2 while Houston, Kentucky, and Purdue round out the top five.

Gonzaga's overall net rating is +29.97, the highest the team has been since finishing the 2021-22 season No. 1 at +30.95. The Zags are one of just three teams currently inside the top ten in both adjusted offensive and adjusted defensive efficiency, coming in at No. 10 with a 122 ORtg and No. 3 with a 92.1 DRtg. Duke (No. 4 and 9) and Kentucky (No. 8 and 10) are the others.

The Zags are one of six teams sitting 5-0 or better on the season as of Tuesday morning, alongside Missouri, Georgia, West Virginia, South Alabama, and the lone 6-0 team in the country - fellow WCC team LMU - who beat UC Santa Barbara in overtime on Monday night.

Three of Gonzaga's five wins have come against power conference opponents ranked inside the top 90 at KenPom: Oklahoma (No. 65) Creighton (No. 49) and on the road against Arizona State (No. 86). All three of those wins were by double-digits, including a 15 point win over Oklahoma which Gonzaga led by as many as 20 in the second half, a 27 point demolition of then No. 23 ranked Creighton, and a hard-fought, gritty win over the Sun Devils by 12.

Gonzaga's two other games were even more dominant, starting with a 55-point win over Texas Southern in the season opener and concluding with the team's epic 122-50 win over Southern Utah on Monday night - coming one point short of tying the program record for points scored at the McCarthey Athletic Center, set in 2023 against NAIA opponent Eastern Oregon.

Coach Few's team is not only No. 1 at KenPom, but they come in at No. 2 on EvanMiya's team ratings and No. 5 on Bart Torvik's T-Rank, making them a consensus top-five team in college hoops according to computer metrics.

Gonzaga will get a chance to move up in the AP top 25 next week when it takes on No. 11 Alabama on Monday, Nov. 24 at 6:30 PM PT in Las Vegas in the first game of the Player's Era Festival. The game will be broadcast on TNT.

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