It was a valiant effort for 20 minutes, but ultimately, like most other teams in college basketball, the Gonzaga Bulldogs just could not get compete for the full 40, and the Purdue Boilermakers sent Gonzaga back to Spokane eyeing the 2024-25 season.
After what started out as an uneven year due to all the new arrivals and eventually settled into the Zags’ ninth-straight Sweet 16 appearance, the patently-useless too-early season preview shows that the Zags are well positioned for another deep run into March next season.
An Anton Watson-sized hole to fill
As of now, the Zags are mainly only losing a very key cog of the machine in Anton Watson to graduation. Filling his minutes as productively as he did this season will be just about impossible. Watson was the team’s best defender and their most versatile option on offense.
That said, the arrival of transfer Michael Ajayi from Pepperdine and the return of Steele Venters from injury should immediately stabilize the Gonzaga starting five. Graham Ike still starts at center with Ben Gregg sliding over to the four position. Ajayi (or Venters) is your starting three with Nolan Hickman and Ryan Nembhard as the backcourt.
The bench will be one year older
After Venters went down with a season-ending injury before the one minute of hoops even took place this year, Stromer filled in on the wing admirably. The defense was there, but the offense was not whatsoever. When the coaching staff slotted Gregg into the starting rotation midway through the season, Stromer’s effectiveness on the offensive end went immediately up.
- Starter: 406 minutes, 34.2 FG%, 32 3P%, 38.5 2P%
- Reserve: 396 minutes, 41 FG%, 41.9 3P%, 38.9 2P%
Luka Krajnovic, the freshman guard from Croatia, was used sparingly throughout the year, but also displayed flashes of his potential towards the end of the season, with 11 solid minutes against McNeese in the NCAA Tournament. He missed a good chunk of the season with a broken hand and was an international recruit. The coaching staff have longed talked about how international recruits take a bit more time to ease in, seeing as they are in a brand new country and all. Next season, he will be one more year closer to being what is hopefully a sizeable contributor to the squad.
The three-point shooting won’t be as dire
There was a lot of hand-wringing this season over depth issues, but Gonzaga’s starting five, once it gelled, was as good as any starting five in the country. Unfortunately, only one of those players (Hickman) averaged over two threes per game.
In all eight-losses this season, Gonzaga shot worse than 33% from three-point range. They only pulled out five wins when shooting under 33% (which isn’t even a good mark), with three of those games being to the likes of Mississippi State, Jackson State, and Eastern Oregon.
Obviously, it is harder for teams that struggle to get over the hump, no matter how efficient they are from two. The return of Venters and the arrival of Ajayi should basically single-handedly solve the problem. Venters is a career 40.3% shooter from three and Ajayi shot a blistering 47% from afar this season.
None of this means anything because the transfer portal exists
Really, the only thing we can safely say is that Ajayi will play for Gonzaga because he transferred here before the Zags’ offseason began. After that, who the heck knows! I don’t think a lot of individuals were expecting Dominick Harris AND Hunter Sallis AND Efton Reid to all head out last season, but that is how the portal goes.
Personally, I think there is reason enough to believe that the lineup is mostly going to be stable. Three main contributors, Ike, Nembhard, and Venters transferred into Gonzaga. Gregg is a self-avowed Gonzaga super fan, and Hickman has grinded and earned his spot as a starter and a primary scoring option for the Zags.
In my opinion, Gonzaga, as a destination for high profile transfers, is more at risk for its bench to depart for more playing time.
Either way, less than 24 hours after the season ended, all of this prognosis is useless as heck. But as we learned this season, only a fool bets against Mark Few and the coaching staff. The Zags will be loaded, because year in and year out, Gonzaga has dudes.