NCAAB Game Preview - Gonzaga at Portland

Thu Jan 2, 2020 10:00 PM EST

Gonzaga is atop the polls as it opens West Coast Conference play on Thursday night at Portland.

But Being ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press' Top 25 has been a precarious perch this season.

Michigan State, Kentucky, Duke, Louisville and Kansas have all come and gone, none winning more than twice after gaining the top spot before suffering a defeat.

Six teams have been atop the poll before New Year's Day, the previous mark having been four. The most to hold that spot in an entire season is seven, set in 1982-83.

Only current top dog, or Bulldog as it were, Gonzaga can avoid tying that record if it remains the No. 1 team throughout the remainder of the 2019-20 season.

"I don't think they should be doing polls this year until March," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said recently. "I'm serious, I mean, it's just an effort in futility at this point."

Gonzaga (14-1) has cruised through nonconference play, losing only to Michigan in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament championship on Nov. 29 in the Bahamas.

The Bulldogs have since won six straight, including games at Pac-12 Conference powers Arizona and Washington and back home against North Carolina.

In its first game at No. 1, Gonzaga defeated Detroit Mercy 93-72 on Monday.

This is the eighth season to have as many as six different teams reach No. 1, though it has happened three times in the past five years.

This is the fifth time Gonzaga has reached No. 1. It first got there in 2013 and returned in 2017. The Bulldogs had two separate stints atop the poll last season.

"Personally, yes, it's always cool to be the No. 1 team in the country," sophomore forward Filip Petrusev, who scored a team-high 22 points against Detroit Mercy, told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane. "I think it's also going to give us a little bit of the good pressure because every team so far lost as the No. 1 team right away. It gives us a little pressure to stay dialed in, keep working and keep getting better and just try to stay No. 1 as long as we can."

Of course, being No. 1 also comes with a big target -- as some of the sport's blue bloods can attest to this season.

"This year in college basketball there's been a bunch of different teams that have had the honor," junior wing Corey Kispert told The Spokesman-Review. "Anybody can beat anybody. Everybody in the country knows that.

"Teams are going to come after you every night, but especially when you're ranked that high."

History suggests the Bulldogs might stay there for an extended period, as in the past decade they've won nine WCC regular-season titles and seven conference tournament championships.

In Portland (8-7), the Bulldogs will go up against a team that has lost four straight games -- all by double digits.

"The history of this program is not been one that's always successful. They've had pockets of success," Pilots coach Terry Porter, the former NBA standout, told WCCSports.com earlier this season. "It's a work in progress, but we want to try to have some sustainability."

Senior guard Isaiah White leads Portland with 13.3 points per game.

Gonzaga is second nationally in scoring with 88 points per game, led by Petrusev's 17.1. The Bulldogs are the only NCAA Division I team with six players averaging 10 or more points per game.

The Bulldogs have defeated Portland 11 consecutive times.

--Field Level Media