Was Gonzaga’s loss to Portland the worst in the Mark Few era?

A shocking defeat for the Bulldogs highlights just how rare a loss like this is

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

Gonzaga has lost 154 games over the span of Mark Few's decorated and impressive 26-year head coaching career.

Wednesday's stunning defeat at the hands of Portland might be the worst of them all.

In perhaps the most shocking result of the college basketball season, the Bulldogs (22-2, 10-1 West Coast Conference) looked helpless against Joel Foxwell and the Pilots (11-14, 4-8 WCC). The freshman guard's 27-point performance fueled Shantay Legans' group to an improbable 87-80 triumph over the WCC's kingpin, resulting in quite the postgame scene at the Chiles Center following the program's first victory over an Associated Press top 10 team.

Given the absolute shock and awe of the final score, there are probably a lot of people who saw the headline of this post and thought, "No duh, it absolutely is the worst loss of the Few era." There's certainly a case to be made for that, and we dig into that a little bit more down below.

But before writing off Wednesday's result as such, let's pump the brakes and really examine the potential ramifications it could have on Gonzaga's postseason outlook.

The case for it being the worst

The crux of the argument for Wednesday's final being the worst Gonzaga has suffered in the Few era is simply the fact that the Zags hardly ever falter against teams of the Pilots' caliber.

Coming off a 30-point loss to Washington State, Portland entered the game ranked No. 216 nationally on KenPom.com, a college basketball analytics website that goes back to the 1996-97 season. Over the last 29 seasons, the Zags have six losses to teams that finished the season outside the top 200 on KenPom (four occurred between 1996 and 2003). The most recent came January 30, 2010, when No. 204 San Francisco pulled off an 81-77 overtime victory at War Memorial Gymnasium behind 22 points from Dior Lowhorn.

Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few. | James Snook-Imagn Images

The difference between those past losses and Wednesday's: Gonzaga wasn't hovering around the top 10 on KenPom when it fell victim to those upsets, nor did it finish any of those seasons inside KenPom's top 30, even.

The point being: the outsider's expectations of the Zags from 16 years ago aren't the same as the ones placed upon the program today. Gonzaga has played in five Elite Eights, appeared in a couple of national championship games and has developed six NBA lottery picks since its last loss to a sub-200 KenPom team. The heightened perception fans, the media and other coaches have of Few and company magnifies the kind of slip-up they suffered on Wednesday.

There are several statistical nuggets that could try and put Wednesday's result into context; Portland being the second sub-.500 teams in at least the past 20 years to upset an opponent with a winning streak of 15 games or more does a pretty good job of illustrating that even in a sport as random as college basketball, there's still room for something even crazier to happen on any given night.

Combine that with Gonzaga's history of excellence and roster talent, and it makes for potentially the worst loss the program has suffered under its eventual Hall-of-Fame coach.

The case against it being the worst

The reality of the Portland loss is that we really have no idea the ramifications it'll have on the Zags' postseason outlook. Depending on who you ask, Gonzaga could fall anywhere from one to three seed lines in the NCAA Tournament as a result. But, as Graham Ike pointed out after the game, it's only February; there won't be an official bracket for another month.

At the very least, Gonzaga's chances of earning a No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday have been dashed for good, which probably doesn't sit well with the coaching staff since the whole point of scheduling up in nonconference play is to build a résumé worthy of top-seed consideration. A few of the Zags' nonleague wins had already started to age poorly, though, by the time Wednesday rolled around, making it increasingly difficult to gain traction over the other 1-seed contenders that have the benefit of playing in more competitive environments in the Big 12, SEC, Big Ten and ACC.

Prior to Wednesday, Gonzaga was projected by ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi to be a No. 2 seed in the West Region. So, say the Zags run the table in the WCC, win the league title in Las Vegas and earn a No. 3 seed on Selection Sunday. They might not have the luxury of staying on the West Coast for the first and second rounds at that point, but the earliest they could possibly cross paths with a No. 1 seed wouldn't be until the Elite Eight.

Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball team. | Photo by Erik Smith

Now, another loss in league play — whether it be in the regular season or conference tournament to anyone not named Saint Mary's — would probably have Gonzaga closer to the 4-seed line, in which case a No. 1 seed could be waiting for it in the Sweet 16.

Again, the point being: if the Portland loss leads to Gonzaga getting an unfavorable seed in the NCAA Tournament, then the argument for it being the worst defeat in the Few era only grows stronger. But in the case that the Zags move right along, handle their business down the stretch of the regular season and make it past the Sweet 16, a game from Feb. 4 won't mean that much in the grand scheme of things.

What this loss means in the bigger picture

In a vacuum: Wednesday's loss to Portland is the worst loss in the Few era. The broader scope of the 2025-26 season isn't complete, though, so it's impossible to understand the impact losing to Portland has on Gonzaga's postseason.

Yes, from a metric-based standpoint, Wednesday's upset is on track to be the biggest Gonzaga has suffered with Few at the helm. But it certainly wasn't the widest margin of defeat the Zags have sustained (that happened earlier this season in the 40-point loss to Michigan), nor were the stakes of winning a national championship game involved, either. From those viewpoints, Wednesday's game is just another footnote in the lengthy book of Gonzaga basketball history.