Sports

Gonzaga vs. UCLA officially set for 2026-27 season in Anaheim

Gonzaga Bulldogs On SI · Jul 22, 2026 18:18 · 3 min read

Gonzaga vs. UCLA officially set for 2026-27 season in Anaheim — Dec 13, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cronin and Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few after the game at Climate Pledge Arena. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Gonzaga Bulldogs and UCLA Bruins will square off for the seventh season in a row in 2026-27, in what could be a revenge game for a certain star point guard.

As Gonzaga continues their pursuit of former UCLA guard Donovan Dent, the Bruins revealed the West Coast Hoops Showdown will take place on Dec. 5 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Gonzaga and UCLA played a two-year neutral-site series in 2024-25 and 2025-26 in Inglewood and Seattle, respectively, with the two teams splitting their respective 'home' matchups. It was reported by CBS' Jon Rothstein before the game in Seattle last year that these two storied programs planned to continue their neutral-site series, but an official announcement did not happen until Wednesday.

Gonzaga vs. UCLA

Dec 13, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Graham Ike (15) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

These two programs have a rich history, dating back 20 years to the infamous Sweet 16 matchup where the Zags blew a 17-point lead in what ended up being the final game of Adam Morrison's historic college career.

The Zags and Bruins have now met once in each of the past six seasons, a stretch where Gonzaga has gone 5-1, including a pair of epic wins in the NCAA Tournament.

First it was Jalen Suggs' jaw-dropping 37-foot game winner in the Final Four in 2021, sending Gonzaga to their second -ever national championship. The Zags then knocked off UCLA 83-63 in Las Vegas in 2022-23, before Julian Strawther heroically sent Gonzaga to the Elite Eight with a game-winning trey in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

Gonzaga and UCLA met in the Maui Invitational in November of 2023, a hard-fought 69-65 win for the Zags, before the two teams split the most recent matchups.

All told, Gonzaga is 8-2 against UCLA since the Morrison loss, and will look for another victory in early December against a loaded-up Bruins squad.

UCLA lost star forward Tyler Bilodeau and senior guards Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark from last year's club, but they retained guard Trent Perry, forward Eric Dailey, and big man Xavier Booker, while bringing in a quality class of newcomers including Texas Tech transfer guard Jaylen Petty, Auburn transfer forward Filip Jovic, Butler transfer guard 'Stink' Robinson, and freshman wing Joe Philon.

Perhaps their biggest addition came earlier this month when Mick Cronin managed to land a massive two-year commitment from 17-year-old Serbian wing Nikola Kusturica, widely considered among the best prospects in the sport and a candidate to go No. 1 overall in the 2028 NBA draft. Gonzaga pursued Kusturica as well, but UCLA secured the commitment over them, Kentucky, and Michigan.

The Donovan Dent angle

Dec 13, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Donovan Dent (2) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Dent spent the first three years of his outstanding collegiate career playing at New Mexico, entering the transfer portal after winning Mountain West Player of the Year by averaging 20.4 points per game as a junior.

He chose UCLA over Gonzaga, and while he put up an excellent 7.8 assists per game for the Bruins, his scoring numbers plummeted - and it led to the 6'2 guard deciding to retire from the game of basketball at the conclusion of the season.

However, the recent injunctions granted to graduated seniors hoping to play a fifth year of college basketball led Dent to pursue legal action of his own, setting him up to play one more year if a judge grants him and 44 other student-athletes an injunction.

That news - combined with Gonzaga's desperate need for a point guard after Mario Saint-Supery's surprise departure - has many believing the guard will end up in Spokane this upcoming season, which would add an incredibly fun storyline to a matchup that already brims with excitement year in and year out.

UCLA joins Purdue, Michigan State, Duke, LSU, Creighton, and Kansas State as known power conference opponents this upcoming season, their first in the new-look Pac-12.