Missed Connections: The Ones That Got Away, Who’s Still Out There, and What Gonzaga Does Next

Coming out of a 31-win season, the Zags watched 11 players leave the roster this offseason, Five seniors aged out. A program-record six more hit the portal. All of it landed right as Gonzaga prepares to officially join the new-look Pac-12 on July 1, a league where San Diego State, Utah State, and Boise State will not care about anyone’s banner collection.

The pieces they do have are extremely encouraging. Braden Huff returns as the senior anchor up front, joined by 7-foot-1 rim protector Massamba Diop in what should be among the most formidable frontcourt pairings in college basketball. Mario Saint-Supery and Davis Fogle are back as rising sophomores. Luca Foster could be a surprisingly skilled piece of the rotation even as a true freshman. But the numbers are hard to ignore. Gonzaga shot 33.3 percent from three last year, the worst mark of Mark Few’s entire coaching career (a mark also reached the season prior), and then lost Adam Miller (eligibility) and Steele Venters (transfer). The backcourt consists of exactly two true guards: Saint-Supery, the lone point guard, and Houston transfer Isiah Harwell, a 6-foot-6 swing who averaged 3.6 points in a quiet freshman year under Kelvin Sampson. Outside the projected starting five, nobody on this roster has played a single college minute at the Division I level.

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The Zags are not done working, obviously. Coach Mark Few and co. have pulled off this trick before, and the roster as built still projects as a top-15 program nationally. But significant rule changes are potentially coming down the pike, and there is real uncertainty about whether international prospects like incoming Spanish G-League Ignite alumnus, Izan Almansa, will even be granted NCAA eligibility in time for the 2026-27 season. Given all of that, the silence from Spokane this late in the calendar is anxiety-inducing. The guys who could have fixed pathed up a lot of these holes were out there this spring. Here are the ones that got away.

Ethan Copeland, G,…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/missed-connections-ones-got-away-123500126.html

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Publish date : 2026-06-09 12:35:00

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