Gonzaga March Madness Bracket: Path to the Final Four

Who Gonzaga needs to beat to make it back to the Final Four in 2026

Gonzaga Bulldogs Tyon Grant-Foster (7) and Braeden Smith (3). | Photo by Myk Crawford

March Madness is here, with the 64-team field getting whittled down to 16 over the next 80 hours in one of the most chaotic - and beautiful - weeks of the year.

Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs are hoping to be one of those final 16 teams, and the path to get there starts Thursday night in Portland, OR, when the No. 3 seed Zags take on No. 14 seed Kennesaw State at 7:00 PM PT.

Gonzaga (30-3) battled significant adversity on their way to another excellent regular season, riding All-American forward Graham Ike over the final six weeks after star forward Braden Huff went down with a left knee injury in mid-January.

Ike posted 19.7 points and 8.2 rebounds in his final regular season, earning WCC Player of the Year and All-American Third Team honors, and he'll be relied upon heavily to get Gonzaga to the Sweet 16, and potentially beyond.

Below is a look at Gonzaga's path to get out of the West Region and into the Final Four:

Round 1: Kennesaw State Owls

Gonzaga has not lost in the first round in 18 years, dating back to their loss to No. 10 seed Davidson in the 2008 NCAA Tournament. They'll look to keep that streak going on Thursday against a fast-paced, strong rebounding Kennesaw State team that rattled off three straight wins in the Conference USA Tournament to secure the league's automatic bid - marking the program's second ever appearance in March Madness.

Round 2: BYU Cougars or Texas Longhorns

Should Gonzaga get past the Owls, they will play either the No. 6 seed BYU Cougars or the No. 11 seed Texas Longhorns in the Round of 32. This game will take place at the Moda Center just before Gonzaga's, tipping at 4:25 PM PT on TBS.

Texas snuck past NC State in a play-in game on Tuesday, 68-66, bringing Sean Miller to the dance in his first year as the head coach in Austin. The Longhorns are a top 20 offensive team in the country, led by versatile forward Dailyn Swain and center Matas Vokietaitis, and are very realistic candidates to upset BYU and draw a matchup with the Zags in the Sweet 16.

BYU rosters the best scorer in college basketball, AJ Dybantsa, who averages over 25 points per game as a freshman in the toughest conference in the sport. The 6'9 wing is electric with the ball in his hands, but the team's loss of catch-and-shoot specialist Richie Saunders to an ACL tear really hurts, as it gives Dybantsa one less option to kick it out to.

Additionally, BYU has struggled defensively under second year head coach Kevin Young, which could work in Gonzaga's favor if this matchup materializes on Saturday.

Sweet 16: Purdue(?)

Purdue finished a shocking seventh in the Big Ten regular season, stumbling down the stretch including losses to UCLA, Indiana, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. However, the Boilermakers turned it on for the conference tournament, rattling off four straight wins and beating Michigan, 80-72, to secure a Big Ten championship.

That kind of momentum is hard to ignore, as is Purdue's veteran backcourt of Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer, two of three seniors on this roster - along with Trey Kaufman-Renn - who have been in Lafayette all four years.

If it's not Purdue, Gonzaga could run into No. 7 Miami or No. 10 Missouri in the Sweet 16, should one of them pull off a big time upset in the Round of 32.

Elite Eight: Arizona(?)

The matchup everyone wants to see. If Gonzaga gets themselves into the Elite Eight, there's a very good chance it sets up a showdown between the master and the protege. Mark Few was Tommy Lloyd's boss for 20 years in Spokane, before Lloyd left in 2021 to take the head coaching job at Arizona - where he has done an extraordinary job.

Lloyd has done it all in the regular season, but is still looking for his first Elite Eight appearance. To finally get there and then have to face off against his longtime boss - with a chance to go the Final Four - would be pure cinema.

There's of course a chance Gonzaga makes the Elite Eight and someone other than Arizona awaits them. It could be John Calipari and the No. 4 Arkansas Razorbacks, led by superstar freshman guard Darius Acuff, or a high-octane offense in No. 5 seed Wisconsin, or perhaps a stunner like No. 8 Villanova, No. 9 Utah State, No. 12 High Point, or trendy upset pick No. 13 Hawaii.