Utah St. @ Gonzaga preview

Few teams in the country lost as many key players as NCAA runner-up Gonzaga who had to replace West Coast Conference Player of the Year and All-American guard Nigel Williams-Goss, 7-foot NBA lottery pick Zach Collins and Przemek Karnowski, winner of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award as the nation's top center. But Mark Few's squad, which hosts Utah State on Saturday night, shows little sign of slowing down so far in 2017-18.

The 19th-ranked Bulldogs have won their first two games over Texas Southern (97-69) and Howard (106-69) by an average of 32.5 points. Junior guard Josh Perkins and 6-9 senior forward Johnathan Williams are both returning starters from the team that fell to North Carolina 71-65 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on April 3 and are on a mission to get back to the Final Four again this year. "We made it that far (last season), but we came up short," Perkins, who scored 13 points in the title-game loss to the Tar Heels, told the Seattle Times. "We're taking that momentum from last year and carrying it into this year. We have even bigger chips on our shoulders. I'm glad we made it that far, but we've got other things coming."

TV: 10 p.m. ET, ROOT/AT&T Sports Network

ABOUT UTAH STATE (2-1): The Aggies, picked to finish eighth in the Mountain West preseason poll, have won back-to-back games over Montana State (81-73) and Mississippi Valley State (83-47) after losing at in-state rival Weber State (65-59) to open the season. Guard Koby McEwen (13.3 points, 3.3 assists per game) is the reigning Mountain West Freshman of the Year and a preseason first-team all-conference pick who had 11 points in Wednesday night's win over the Delta Devils but limped off the court in the second half with a right ankle injury and is questionable for Saturday's contest. Junior forward DeAngelo Isby, a transfer from Wabash Valley (Ill.) College, leads the team in scoring (15.3 points) and has connected on 7-of-12 3-pointers (58.3 percent) while junior forward Dwayne Brown Jr. leads the team in rebounding (6.0) while also scoring 7.0 points per game.

ABOUT GONZAGA (2-0): Perkins, who connected on six 3-pointers in the win over Texas Southern, leads the team in scoring (14.5) and is tied for the lead in assists (4.0) while shooting 52.9 percent (9-of-17) from 3-point range. Williams is second in scoring (14.0) and leads the team in rebounding (8.5) but has struggled at the free-throw line where he's connected on just 9-of-20 attempts. Four other Zags are scoring in double figures -- senior Silas Melson, sophomore forward Rui Hachimura, freshman guard Zach Norvell Jr. and freshman wing Corey Kispert -- and all are averaging 11.5 points per game.

TIP-INS

1. Gonzaga is shooting 41.7 percent (25-of-60) from 3-point range so far this season.

2. Kispert is the first freshman to start a season opener for the Zags since Elias Harris in 2009.

3. Gonzaga is 180-17 at the McCarthy Athletic Center since it opened in 2004, and the .914 winning percentage at home ranks third in the nation behind only Kansas (.951) and Duke (.926).

PREDICTION: Gonzaga 94, Utah State 77