Campbell coach John Andrzejek has high praise for Gonzaga after Wednesday's game

Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs closed out the 2025 home schedule with a 98-70 victory over the Campbell Fighting Camels on Wednesday night in front of a quiet McCarthey Athletic Center crowd.

With the students home for winter break, the lack of energy in the Kennel seemed to carry over onto the floor, with a herculean effort from Braden Huff necessary for the Zags to pull away from a pesky Campbell squad coached by John Andrzejek, who had a lot of complimentary things to say about Gonzaga following the game.

“I think they’re ranked seventh in the country right now,” Andrzejek said. “There are not six teams better than them, I’ll tell you that for sure.”

Andrzejek is familiar with the Zags dating back to his time as the director of operations at USF under coach Kyle Smith in the 2016-17 season, when Gonzaga went to the national championship game behind a frontcourt of Przemek Karnowski, Johnathan Williams, Zach Collins, and Killian Tillie.

Thus, Andrzejek knew double-teaming on the block would be a challenge thanks to Gonzaga's ability to pass out of those double teams, but it left his undersized Camels fighting for their life against the size and physicality of Graham Ike and Braden Huff for 40 minutes.

“A lot of teams in our position try to double them and it usually doesn’t go well," Andrzejek said. "They’re so well-schooled about how to screen the defender on the back side, they have so much shooting. We did a couple post doubles but mostly tried to play them one on one. The teams that have somehow beaten them usually play them one on one.”

Andrzejek, who is now 5-6 in his first season at the helm with Campbell, kept tabs on Gonzaga while he was with Smith at Washington State from 2019-2023 and again at Florida from 2023-2025.

Dec 17, 2025; Spokane, Washington, USA; Campbell Fighting Camels head coach John Andrzejek. | James Snook-Imagn Images

“I’ve got utmost respect for this program,” he said. “I’ve literally watched every one of their offensive possessions for about four years straight. Every summer I rip through all of it. I think I could have called out some of their plays, but it’s hard. We really only had one or two days to prep.”

“We knew we were really going to have to play the right way and be super physical and committed to our stuff just to be able to not get crushed, truthfully,” Andrzejek continued. “We saw the Southern Utah score (122-50) and I’ve seen what happens to teams in this gym. I knew it would be nearly impossible to win, but I thought we could make progress for the program by hanging around, competing well, chipping away. I thought we were competitive.”

Campbell did not get discouraged despite Gonzaga going on a run to close the first half with a 55-36 lead, and in fact fought all the way back to make this a 72-62 game with just under ten minutes to go before the Zags went on a 15-2 run to put the game away.

Gonzaga's dominance down low, elite depth at all five spots, and defensive intensity make them one of the most complete teams in college basketball, and Andrzejek - who knows what national championship teams look like having been on Florida's staff last year - believes this team has what it takes.

“I’ll tell you this: If I was a Gonzaga fan, I’d feel very good about this team,” Andrzejek said. “They have a chance to go a long, long way.”

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