Oklahoma Set for Road Battle Against 'Really Good' Gonzaga Team

The Sooners will face Gonzaga — one of college basketball's most dominant programs over the last decade — on Saturday.

Oklahoma guard Dayton Forsythe | Carson Field, Sooners On S

After winning comfortably in Game 1, the Sooners will hit the road to battle a perennial powerhouse.

Oklahoma will face No. 21 Gonzaga at Spokane Arena on Saturday. The Sooners beat Saint Francis 102-66 in their season opener, while the Bulldogs beat Texas Southern 98-43 in their first game of the 2025-26 season.

Last year, Gonzaga’s nine-year streak of reaching the Sweet 16 came to an end. The Bulldogs, a No. 9-seed in the NCAA Tournament, won their first-round game against Georgia before falling to eventual-national-runner-up Houston in the second round.

Still, Gonzaga won the West Coast Conference Tournament championship and finished the year 26-9 overall.

The Bulldogs have their top scorer, Graham Ike, back to lead them in 2025-26.

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How to Watch Oklahoma Sooners vs. Gonzaga Bulldogs

• Location: Spokane Arena, Spokane, WA
• Date: Nov. 8
• Time: 9:30 p.m. CT
• Channel: ESPN2
• Radio Broadcast: 107.7 FM The Franchise

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Ike is playing his fifth college basketball season and third with Gonzaga after starting his career at Wyoming. Last year, Ike — a 6-9, 250-pound forward — averaged 17.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.

In this year’s opener, transfer guard Tyon Grant-Foster led the Bulldogs with 15 points. Grant-Foster is another fifth-year player, and he transferred to Gonzaga during the offseason after averaging 14.8 points per game at Grand Canyon in 2024-25.

As for the Sooners, they look much different this year: Jeremiah Fears entered the NBA Draft after his freshman season, while Kobe Elvis, Jalon Moore and Sam Godwin graduated from the program.

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Against Saint Francis, redshirt freshman Kuol Atak led OU with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Three players — Mohamed Wague, Xzayvier Brown and Nijel Pack — finished with 16 points apiece. The transfer quartet of Brown, Pack, Derrion Reid and Tae Davis combined for 53 points in the Sooners’ rout of the Red Flash.

Oklahoma wasn’t perfect in its season opener. The Sooners held a one-point, 45-44 lead in the first half, and they didn’t control the paint in the first 20 minutes of play.

But in the second half, the Sooners did what better teams do. OU outrebounded Saint Francis 23-13 in the final 20 minutes, and the Sooners shot 58.3 percent from the field to run away from the Red Flash.

Facing off against one of the more dominant programs in recent memory, Saturday will mark the first true test for Oklahoma’s 2025-26 squad.

“They're a really good team,” Atak said. “So just making sure I get myself locked in and ready for that."

Saturday’s game between the Sooners and Bulldogs will tip off at 9:30 p.m.