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Not a surprise. Redshirt junior point guard Braeden Smith becomes the third Gonzaga Bulldog to enter his name in the NCAA transfer portal, along with junior wing Emmanuel Innocenti and redshirt freshman guard Cade Orness.
After transferring away from the Colgate Raiders and redshirting in 2024-25, Smith started 18 of the 35 games for the Zags in 2025-26. The 6-0 vocal leader had his role diminished towards the latter part of the season due to true freshman point guard Mario Saint-Super’s stronger play and reliability.
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The 2024 Patriot League Player of the Year averaged 5.1 points on a shooting split of 46.7 field goal percentage/33.3 three-point percentage/80.5 free throw percentage, plus 3.6 assists, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.0 steals in 17.1 minutes per game.
The Seattle, Washington, native made the move to Spokane, Washington, in search of a starting role at a higher level of competition. It will be interesting to see if he moves up into a power conference or goes back down to a mid-major. This site wishes him the best of luck going forward.
Coach Mark Few’s roster has taken a hit with three departures to the portal thus far, but also with five outgoing seniors for a total of eight players gone from last year’s team. So far, the only new additions to next season’s group will come from the 2026 high school/international class in four-star wing Luca Foster, four-star center Sam Funches, and four-star combo guard Jack Kayil. 247 Sports has that class ranked No. 23 amongst all college basketball programs.
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The transfer portal officially opens up the day after the national championship on Tuesday, April 7, and will be open for 15 days until closing on April 26.
Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area… Follow him on X @a_cravalho
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/braeden-smith-becomes-third-zag-203016636.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-06 20:30:00
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