Gonzaga vs. Kennesaw State: NCAA Tournament Predictions & Preview

by BettingPros Staff |
Mar 15, 2026

The 2026 NCAA Tournament is officially here! The March Madness Bracket is set, and first-round NCAA Tournament matchups are in place. It’s time to make your picks and predictions for the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament! We’re here to help as we’ll have picks and predictions for each of the first round 2026 NCAA Tournament games. Here are our NCAA Tournament predictions and preview for Gonzaga vs. Kennesaw State.

2026 NCAA Tournament Predictions & Preview: Gonzaga vs. Kennesaw State

Here are the odds for this opening-round matchup of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Let’s dive into our preview and predictions for this NCAA Tournament matchup.

Gonzaga 2026 NCAA Tournament Preview

Mark Few’s final season in the WCC has been far from a surprise. The Bulldogs won another WCC championship. Graham Ike has been as dominant as expected with 14 double-doubles, asserting himself as one of the best frontcourt players in college basketball. Braden Huff went down in January, but Few adapted, leaning into defense through Jalen Warley and Tyon Grant-Foster. The result is a top-10 defensive unit, both across the entire season and since January 15th, after Huff's injury.

But there was a cost to losing Huff. Gonzaga’s offensive rating dropped to outside of the top 50, its three-point shooting fell to just over 30% and the Bulldogs dropped a Quad 3 game to Portland. What’s held everything together is Ike, who expanded his workload, raised his shooting efficiency and has been a ruthlessly efficient post scorer. Freshman Davis Fogle emerged as the wing rotation piece Few and his staff needed.

Point guard Mario Saint-Supery is streaky but showed in the WCC championship against Santa Clara that he can be an off-ball threat from deep when Few creates looks for him. Gonzaga ranks in the top five nationally in both assist-to-turnover ratio and turnover margin. The Bulldogs won't beat themselves with the number of looks they get up every game, and with how much they limit second-chance opportunities and free buckets to their opponents.

Gonzaga’s 27th straight tournament appearance is here. The last time Gonzaga lost in the first round, Steph Curry was playing for Davidson. The Bulldogs have a deep bench and have one of the most experienced teams in DI hoops. This team ranks 21st without Huff, so its ceiling feels capped. But Few is one of the best coaches in the league. How far Gonzaga goes depends on Ike carrying the load and whether they can step up from deep.

Kennesaw State 2026 NCAA Tournament Preview

The story of how Kennesaw State got here is one of the stranger ones in the field. The Owls entered the season believing they had a genuine star in Simeon Cottle, a returning guard who had turned down transfer portal offers to stay. Through 14 games, he was putting up elite efficiency numbers. Then, in January, Cottle was named in a federal sports betting indictment and has not played since. What followed was one of the more quietly impressive mid-season adaptations you’ll find anywhere in college basketball.

Sophomore RJ Johnson, already a first-team All-CUSA honoree, took over and posted a 116.6 offensive rating on 26% usage in conference play after Cottle’s departure, hit 43% from three on 123 attempts and went for 20+ points eight times between January 15th and season’s end. He is a legitimate scoring threat and the clearest reason why the Owls kept winning despite losing the player the offense was built around.

Frankquon Sherman became the second option down the stretch, averaging 14.3 points and 9.3 rebounds over the final nine games of the season. The identity under third-year coach Antoine Pettway is pace-and-space at its most committed. Kennesaw State ranks 19th nationally in tempo and has the seventh-highest free-throw rate in the country. The flip side is that they also surrender the third-most free throws to opponents. The average Kennesaw game features north of 55 combined free-throw attempts and 41 fouls.

Kennesaw State versus Arizona will be a two-hour grind. The freshman duo of Trey Simpson and Amir Taylor both had tournament-changing moments in Huntsville. The Owls paced down Alabama and hung tough for 40 minutes in December. Despite missing Cottle, Pettway's squad will be a tough out.

More NCAA Tournament Predictions & Previews

#1 Duke vs. #16 Siena
#8 Ohio State vs. #9 TCU
#5 St. John’s vs. #12 Northern Iowa
#4 Kansas vs. #13 Cal Baptist
#6 Louisville vs. #11 South Florida
#3 Michigan State vs. #14 North Dakota State
#7 UCLA vs. #10 UCF
#2 UConn vs. #15 Furman

#1 Arizona vs. #16 LIU
#8 Villanova vs. #9 Utah State
#5 Wisconsin vs. #12 High Point
#4 Arkansas vs. #13 Hawai’i
#11 Texas vs. North Carolina State
#3 Gonzaga vs. #14 Kennesaw State
#7 Miami (FL) vs. #10 Missouri
#2 Purdue vs. #15 Queens

#16 UMBC vs. Howard
#8 Georgia vs. #9 Saint Louis
#5 Texas Tech vs. #12 Akron
#4 Alabama vs. #13 Hofstra
#11 Miami OH vs. SMU
#3 Virginia vs. #14 Wright State
#7 Kentucky vs. #10 Santa Clara
#2 Iowa State vs. #15 Tennessee State

#16 Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh
#8 Clemson vs. #9 Iowa
#5 Vanderbilt vs. #12 McNeese
#4 Nebraska vs. #13 Troy
#6 North Carolina vs. #11 VCU
#3 Illinois vs. #14 Penn
#7 Saint Mary’s vs. #10 Texas A&M
#2 Houston vs. #15 Idaho

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