Gonzaga vs. Purdue in Las Vegas: No. 15 Bulldogs Face a 5-0 Series Ghost at T-Mobile Arena on Opening Night
The men's session of the Hall of Fame Series opens at 4:30 p.m. Monday with a strange history: Purdue has beaten Gonzaga all five times they have met, including three straight from 2022 to 2024. The No. 15 Bulldogs bring Braden Huff and a transfer-built roster to T-Mobile Arena to try to end it, on TNT, truTV and HBO Max.
College basketball's opening night in Las Vegas starts with the matchup neither team can treat as a warm-up. No. 15 Gonzaga faces Purdue at 4:30 p.m. Pacific at T-Mobile Arena in the first game of the Hall of Fame Series men's session — TNT, truTV and HBO Max carry it, with a studio show a half-hour before — and the Boilermakers arrive holding a 5-0 all-time series lead, the last three wins coming 84-66 at the Phil Knight Legacy in 2022, 73-63 at the Maui Invitational in 2023 and 80-68 in the 2024 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, according to the previews read by the desk.
Gonzaga's answer is a rebuilt roster around one familiar finisher. Braden Huff, the Bulldogs' top returning scorer at 17.8 points and 5.6 rebounds a game last season and a CBS Sports third-team preseason All-American, opened the exhibition season with 19 points and 11 rebounds against Arkansas. Around him, Mark Few — starting his 28th season at 773-156 — added guard Xaivian Lee from Florida, where he started all 35 games at 11.6 points and 4.2 assists, and 7-foot-1 center Massamba Diop from Arizona State, who averaged 13.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks. Sophomore Davis Fogle, an 8.6-point scorer on the WCC All-Freshman team, gives the backcourt its returning spark.
Purdue's rebuild runs the other way: C.J. Cox, at 8.5 points a game, is the only returning starter, and the new pieces carry the intrigue — Princeton transfer Caden Pierce, the 2024 Ivy League Player of the Year at 16.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists, 7-foot-4 starting center Daniel Jacobsen, point guard Omer Mayer stepping out of Braden Smith's shadow, and Gicarri Harris moving from the bench into the starting five. The Boilermakers open unranked, ending a 79-week run in the Top 25, which makes Monday's second game the nightcap to a full Las Vegas card: UCLA and Arizona follow at 7 p.m. Pacific in the same building.
