Top transfer portal big men still available for Gonzaga as frontcourt search intensifies

The biggest priority for Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs this offseason is replacing star big man Graham Ike.

The team is set to bring back redshirt senior Braden Huff, who averaged 17.8 points in 18 games last year before suffering a season-ending knee injury in mid-January.

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His return gives the Zags a top-tier scorer down around the rim, and finding the right center to play alongside him is crucial for this team to reach its ceiling in the 2027 NCAA Tournament.

Fortunately, the transfer portal is chock full of excellent frontcourt players for the team to parse through.

Right now, according to EvanMiya’s great transfer portal rankings, 27 of the top 100 available players in the portal are either power forwards or centers, including eight of the top 25 and 11 of the top 50.

Gonzaga’s known targets

Two of those names are guys Gonzaga has already been publicly linked to in Arizona State’s Massamba Diop (No. 26 overall) and SMU’s Samet Yigitoglu (No. 95).

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Diop is a 7’1 rising sophomore from Arizona State who scored 13.6 points with 5.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game last year in nearly 30 minutes per game. Diop has reportedly narrowed his search to Gonzaga and St. John’s, and his low-post scoring and rim protection would pair extremely well with Huff in Spokane.

The same is true for Yigitoglu, who shot 63% from the field last year for the Mustangs, scoring 10.7 points with 7.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 28.9 MPG in 2025-26.

Big time targets

Knowing that Gonzaga is going after true centers who can score around the cup and protect the rim, a few other notable names currently available in the portal include No. 13 Somto Cyril (Georgia), No. 15 Najai Hines (Seton Hall) and No. 30 Eric Reibe (UConn).

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Cyril led the SEC with 2.2 blocks per game as a sophomore last year at Georgia, made even more impressive by his 21.2 MPG. He also shot an absurd 75.9% on two pointers, putting him among the most elite centers in the country at the two skills – rim…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/top-transfer-portal-big-men-225612851.html

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Publish date : 2026-04-10 22:56:00

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