Mark Few provides updates on injury status of Gonzaga’s Dominick Harris, Kaden Perry

Mark Few said Dominick Harris’ absence from Gonzaga’s basketball team has been underplayed by those outside the Bulldogs’ locker room.

Judging by the coach’s latest update on the sophomore guard, it may still be a while before fans and reporters are able to discuss the guard’s return to the floor.

According to Few, Harris’ recovery from a foot injury that was sustained in the offseason has gone smoothly and the sophomore guard is facing a critical juncture in his rehabilitation process this week.

“He had surgery on his foot and he’s progressing well,” Few said Thursday. “I think he’s, obviously now they’re letting him walk around with his boot. This is a big week for him kind of ramping up some stuff to see how it goes, but it’s a long, long, long process.”

Harris provided an update of his own Friday afternoon, posting from his Twitter account that doctors have cleared him to move forward without the walking boot that’s been on his right foot since the injury occurred.

“Boot off!” Harris tweeted.

The guard shared the same news on Instagram, captioning his post with “baby steps.”

Few didn’t sound optimistic that Harris would be practicing with the Bulldogs anytime soon, let alone suiting up for Gonzaga during the 2021-22 season.

“It’s a long ways from that happening,” he said. “It’s a long, long ways from that happening. It’s a surgery on basically the big toe with a plantar fascia kind of tied into it. There’s a long way from that happening.”

Because Harris played only 180 minutes off the bench for Gonzaga as a freshman, averaging 3.0 points per game, it’s hard for fans to know what the Bulldogs have missed without the sophomore guard in the team’s backcourt rotation.

But Gonzaga coaches and players who watched Harris in the offseason before he sustained the injury are confident the Murrieta, California, product would’ve played a meaningful role for the team in 2021-22 with his 3-point marksmanship and defensive activity.

“We miss him,” Few said. “He was arguably our best shooter all through the offseason and great athlete moving his feet and all that, so that was a big loss nobody’s really talked about.”

Although it came on only 23 attempts, Harris connected on 39% from 3-point range last season. Rasir Bolton is shooting 41% from distance this season, but GU’s three other rotational guards are a combined 19 of 70, or 27%, from behind the arc.

The Zags should be without Harris for the foreseeable future, but they’re hopeful another injured player will be back in the fray soon.

Freshman forward Kaden Perry, who reaggravated a prior back injury while doing individual work before Gonzaga’s home contest against Tarleton State, is still on the mend after missing three consecutive games.

“His back had him out , he missed his high school season last year and all through the summer and into the fall,” Few said. “We had him back, amped up and going and he tweaked it again. It’s kind of aggravated it to the point where we had to shut him down for a while, then he was back moving again (Thursday) a little bit.”

Behind Anton Watson, Perry has often been the second forward off the bench for Gonzaga this season, averaging 6.8 minutes in six games. Perry, who’s drawn early comparisons to former Zag Brandon Clarke with his athleticism and rim protection, averaged 2.0 points and 2.3 rebounds per game before going out with his back injury.

Perry missed a good chunk of his senior season at Battle Ground (Washington) High due to herniated discs in his back and spent the spring, summer and part of the fall in rehabilitation. While Perry has participated in pregame warmups with the Zags, along with other activities, Few couldn’t say whether he’d be available to play against Texas Tech.

“As you know, backs are a real pain and they’re tricky,” Few said. “They’re just so tricky. Anything can trigger them and he was just doing individual work before the game and it just triggered. So, we’ll see. See if we can kind of get it back going again, because he was moving terrifically there for about six weeks.”