Gonzaga-Saint Mary's ranked fifth-best rivalry in college basketball for 2023-24 season

Among the many storied rivalries in college basketball, the West Coast Conference heavyweight bouts between the Gonzaga Bulldogs and Saint Mary's Gaels have become one of the sport's most anticipated fixtures season after season.

With just over five weeks until opening night, NCAA college basketball analyst Andy Katz ranked the Bulldogs-Gaels rivalry fifth on his top-10 list of rivalries heading into the 2023-24 season. Duke vs. North Carolina ranked No. 1, while Dayton vs. VCU rounded out the rankings as the only other mid-major rivalry to receive recognition.

Here's what Katz had to say about the WCC rivalry:

The two standard bearers for the now assurgent West Coast Conference, Gonzaga and Saint Mary's have forged one of college basketball's most competitive, impactful rivalries despite a combined enrollment of fewer than 10,000 students. Mark Few's turn-of-the-century arrival at Gonzaga quickly ushered in a wave of WCC dominance for the Bulldogs, with Gonzaga winning the conference by at least a game every year from 2002 through 2010. However, since earning the No. 1 seed in the 2011 WCC tournament, Saint Mary's has battled Gonzaga closely and the teams have rotated between the conference's top two spots in nine of the last 12 seasons.

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Indeed, Gonzaga and Saint Mary's have owned the WCC over the past quarter-century, with Mark Few's squad claiming majority ownership. The two West Coast powerhouses have at least split the last 22 conference regular season titles, with the Zags claiming 17 of those outright. Many conference tournament championships have come down to Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary's, in which the Zags have won eight of the 11 meetings.

As the Gaels rise to national prominence, the rivalry has featured plenty of ranked matchups. Gonzaga has won nine of the 11 matchups when both are ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, including a 77-68 win in the most recent regular-season meeting that helped the Zags clinch a share of the WCC regular season crown. Prior to that, the Gaels escaped with an overtime win in Moraga, California, in the first matchup of the season.

Gonzaga had the last laugh in the rivalry, a 77-51 win in the WCC tournament championship game in March. Drew Timme became the program's all-time leading scorer that night, as the Zags claimed their fourth-straight conference title.

Gonzaga and Saint Mary's renew their rivalry on Feb. 3 in Spokane before they close WCC regular-season action on March 2 in Moraga, five days before the conference tournament in Las Vegas.