‘It’s not even work to us.’ Gonzaga forming early identity, chemistry through offseason workouts

Without access to practice footage, team meetings or individual workouts, college basketball fans looking for offseason progress reports on their favorite teams normally have to rely on the word of players and coaches.

In the case of Gonzaga, multiple words. All categorically positive ones, too.

Some of the words that came up most frequently during conversations with more than a half-dozen Gonzaga players who were asked to characterize the 2025-26 team after three weeks of summer practices and workouts?

Energy. Effort. Chemistry. Balance. Swagger.

“Everyday approach is phenomenal,” sixth-year senior forward Graham Ike said. “We’re having fun, man. I mean we were definitely having fun last year, but everybody’s just having fun. Smiles all the time, great music, great energy. It’s not even work to us, it’s just for the love of the game.

“We’re just having a great time, enjoying each other’s company, trying to get better and embark on a great journey together, on one big goal and that’s winning the whole thing.”

The key intangibles already seem to be in place for the 2025-26 Zags, who regrouped in Spokane early last month for offseason practices and lifting sessions. The group of players that reported to campus on June 2 for summer workouts isn’t a completely accurate representation of the one that’ll be back in August after a short hiatus, but it’s fairly close.

Combo guard Mario Saint-Supery, who signed with the Zags on June 30, arrived to late as the result of scheduling conflicts with his professional team back in Spain. GU will ideally have at least one more player on its roster come August. Grand Canyon transfer Tyon Grant-Foster committed to Mark Few’s team on May 28, but the 25-year-old wing won’t be able to join the Zags in an official capacity until the NCAA approves his eligibility waiver.

The Zags are complete otherwise and already seeing positive returns from a group that’s excelling on the court and gelling away from it.

“I think the biggest thing I’ve seen is just the energy,” senior wing Steele Venters said. “We’ve had 7 a.m. practices, everyone’s coming in, hyping each other up, hyping each other up in the lifts. Everyone wants to be around each other and I think that’s the biggest thing, especially nowadays. The portal is so hard to get guys to mesh, find chemistry and I feel like we’re finding that really early so I think that’s a really good thing.”

It’s not just lip service, either.

Ike recently posted a gallery of photos and videos to his Instagram account, featuring highlights from his summer at home in the Denver area and Spokane. One of the slides depicted a scene from Gonzaga’s weight room, where Braeden Smith was going through a lifting regimen that required him to complete a combination of dumbbell chest flyes and skull-crushers with a set of 25-pound weights. As he completed the final repetition, Smith peeled himself off the weight bench and shouted into a semicircle of roughly 10 teammates who’d been crowding the junior and offering words of encouragement.

“Even if everyone’s done, the last guy, we’re all cheering them on,” freshman center Parker Jefferson said. “It’s just a family aspect. Nobody’s left behind, even if you’re five minutes late to the lift or whatever. We’re still getting better, everybody’s surrounding you, supporting you, giving you energy. It’s a great atmosphere.”

Any diagnosis of what the Zags might look like on the court in three months begins with forwards Graham Ike and Braden Huff, the team’s top returning scorers at 17.3 and 11.0 points per game, respectively.

“Definitely our bigs with B-Huff and Ike,” said freshman Davis Fogle, asked to identify the team’s strengths. “Those are two of the best players in the country, so we’re obviously going to be strong down there. Then I think our guard play is really good.”

The guard line will look entirely new as Gonzaga replaces starters Ryan Nembhard, Nolan Hickman and Khalif Battle with a group that includes Smith, Fogle, Saint-Supery and Arizona State transfer Adam Miller.

Miller, nicknamed “Ace,” is a sharpshooter who’s at his fourth school after stops at Illinois, LSU and ASU. Expected to play off the ball, possibly alongside Smith in GU’s starting lineup, Miller’s experience, heady playmaking and shooting ability have all been welcome signs for the Zags in early practices.

“He always makes the right play,” Venters said. “He’s able to space the floor, obviously he’s a knockdown shooter, started every game for four years. We’re just really excited to have him on the team.”

The season is still months away, but the Zags already have a good sense of where they might thrive based on new and returning personnel. Fans might be glad to hear defense is one such area.

Gonzaga finished No. 108 nationally in scoring defense (69.9 ppg) and withstood one of the worst defensive stretches of the Few era last season – a two-game WCC skid where the Zags allowed 200 points at Oregon State and at home against Santa Clara.

“Definitely want to be better defensively this year,” Smith said. “We think we have some pieces to take that jump with ball pressure, causing turnovers, rebounding better.”

Gonzaga might not turn the clock back to 2016-17 with its defensive tenacity next season, but the Zags have a chance to be longer and more athletic on the perimeter, with junior Emmanuel Innocenti expected to play a bigger role and Virginia transfer Jalen Warley entering the rotation. Grant-Foster was a disruptive defender at GCU, averaging 1.7 blocks and 1.5 steals last season.

Somewhere between subpar and nonexistent last season, Gonzaga’s rim protection could improve coming off a year where the Zags ranked No. 230 nationally at three blocks per game. Sophomore Ismaila Diagne, a 7-footer who dealt with knee injuries last season, gives GU more reinforcement at the rim, and opponents may be more reluctant to test the Zags in the paint with 6-9 Ike and 6-10 Huff in the starting lineup.

“I think especially next year our team defensively is going to be way, way, way better because the guys we’ve got are all tough on defense and we’ve got rim protectors,” Diagne said. “I think it’s going to be different.”

On paper, the Zags don’t seem to lack starting-caliber players or depth at any single spot. The absence of a secondary ball-handler may have been one deficiency, but GU cleared that up with the addition of Saint-Supery, who played in Spain’s Liga Endesa – widely considered a top-three basketball league in the world – and has made multiple appearances for Spain’s senior national team.

“Really excited about this team,” Huff said. “We’ve had some good practices so far and everyone is bought in and excited to learn, excited to compete, so it should be a fun group.”

Preseason polls generally consider GU a top-20 team entering the 2025-26 campaign, though most haven’t been updated since Saint-Supery was added to the fold.

Another thing they probably aren’t factoring? The camaraderie GU players have quickly established through early-morning lifting sessions, hyper-competitive practices and team-bonding activities away from the court.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to have as strong a bond as us on the court,” Jefferson said. “I think just the way we’re already gelling together, it’s only been three weeks. I think that’s going to be different. Obviously when the season comes, you can’t tell, but I think it’s a great group of guys so I think our fight on the court and just togetherness will be different.

“And I think defensively, offensively, we’re going to have that swag that Gonzaga usually plays with. We’re just going to play hard, I think that’s what everybody does.”