As Gonzaga phases out of its Nembhard Era, Mark Few’s point-guard-in-waiting has been working quietly – and diligently – behind the scenes

By late March, Braeden Smith has the drill down to a science.

Gonzaga’s point guard-in-waiting arrives at an NCAA Tournament opener against Georgia in a team-issued sweatsuit, then parks himself in a seat near the end of Gonzaga’s bench. Minutes before the Zags tip off against the Bulldogs at Intrust Arena in Wichita, Kansas, he pulls out an iPad and turns the device on.

Smith activates his mind next.

Over the next two hours, Smith’s Gonzaga teammates dismantle Georgia 89-68 behind relentless defense and superb 3-point shooting, sprinting out to a 24-point lead inside the first 8 minutes before polishing off the program’s 16th consecutive first-round victory.

From the far end of Gonzaga’s bench, Smith is observing, analyzing, processing and documenting. He’s picking up on things like Georgia’s ball-screen coverages and Gonzaga’s success in transition. The mental notes quickly morph into detailed bullet points on a file in Smith’s iPad.

“Were we boxing out? Were we executing sets?” Smith said. “Pretty much everything. Just trying to keep track and notice the little things and I think that’ll help me moving forward.”

It’s the first part of a homework assignment Smith completed 35 times – correlating to the number of games on Gonzaga’s schedule – during his redshirt season in Spokane.

With reigning national assists leader Ryan Nembhard now gone and no sign of a third Nembhard brother coming down the pike, Smith, barring any unexpected offseason developments, is the player Gonzaga will entrust to handle starting point guard duties in 2025-26.

That’s been widely understood for more than a year, since the Colgate transfer signed at Gonzaga with two years of eligibility remaining, but Smith’s opportunity is fast approaching as he phases out of his redshirt season.

Inevitably, point guard will be a key talking point as pundits handicap Gonzaga’s chances of repeating as West Coast Conference Tournament champions and extending various March Madness streaks. For just the second time in the six years, they won’t be able to bank on a Nembhard at the most important position in Mark Few’s offense.

Smith’s mental makeup, work ethic and commitment to Gonzaga’s redshirt program are why it might not be as pressing of a concern within the walls of McCarthey Athletic Center.

“He has good feel for the game, super fast, super heady, good passer, can score the ball,” Ryan Nembhard said. “So he does a lot. It’ll be different next year. I think they’re just getting someone that’s a hard-nosed guy, that works super hard, tough guy and will do whatever he can for the team.”

Former Zags like Dan Dickau, Kelly Olynyk, Brandon Clarke and Nigel Williams-Goss parlayed redshirt years into All-American seasons, Final Four runs and opportunities in the NBA. Junior forward Braden Huff, a projected starter for the Zags this fall, has seen positive returns from a redshirting in 2022-23.

When recruiting potential redshirts, Gonzaga can make a sales pitch that’s as strong as any in the country, but it still takes time to see the payoff and requires a level of patience and perspective that some players don’t possess.

“It’s really easy if you’re not playing, especially if you know you’re not playing the whole year to maybe disengage that part of your game,” GU assistant coach Stephen Gentry said.

For Smith, it was an especially stark contrast to what he’d come from.

Smith’s 2023-24 season culminated with Patriot League Player of the Year and conference tournament MVP honors. He averaged 12.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.6 assists and led the Patriot League in total steals (66). He was the primary catalyst for a team that won a conference title and booked its second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Smith’s next act, as a redshirt guard at Gonzaga, wouldn’t come with the same accolades or attention, but Gentry had a plan in place to make sure the guard was never too detached from the action on the court.

Every game, the third-year assistant who serves as Few’s offensive coordinator and works closely with GU’s guards, had Smith type up a report, outlining what he saw from the bench. Gentry set a 10 a.m. deadline for the next day. Smith’s assignments always arrived on time, often early.

“It’s something I’ve done in the past, something Gonzaga’s done in the past. I think Braeden’s been a little different,” Gentry said. “His is on time always. A lot of guys will be like, ‘Oh, I’ll get that to you a week later.’ His is always the next day, and it’s typed up, detail-oriented. That kind of speaks to Braeden’s personality and how detail-oriented he is. Yeah, those have been really good.”

“I take pride in just respecting people’s time, respecting our coaching staff and getting it done,” Smith said. “Also, it just helps me see the game better, be able to get it in, get the feedback and move forward.”

The quality and length of Smith’s homework assignments evolved throughout the year. Initially, the point guard would fill roughly a half-page, print out a single sheet and leave it on his coach’s desk. Gentry got a kick out of the resume-style formatting Smith used early on.

“He’d even have like a letterhead, like ‘Braeden Smith’ with his address,” Gentry said. “I’m like, ‘Braeden you’re not applying for a job here.’ ”

Gentry encouraged more detail and a deeper level of thinking. By the end of the season, Smith’s half-page dispatches were two-page essays, filled top to bottom with detailed thoughts, advanced analytics and callbacks to certain aspects of the team’s scouting reports.

“I will say, his postgame reports probably started out at a C+ level,” Gentry said. “So just to continue to challenge him – more, more, more. Give me more. To keep pulling back the layers and keep diving in, don’t just speak in generalities. So, they really grew over time.”

Gentry’s had other redshirts at Gonzaga, Illinois and Stephen F. Austin submit postgame reports. Smith was the first to incorporate the in-game iPad notes, which helped streamline the process and make things easier once he started writing.

“So he took that upon himself,” Gentry said. “He took it a step further and this is B-Smith for you.”

Last October, Smith descended a set of bleacher stairs at the Kennel, acknowledging 6,000 fans as he jogged down to the court before the team’s annual Kraziness in the Kennel showcase.

Smith was introduced over the PA system. He went up and down for 18 minutes, put up six shots and totaled three assists during the scrimmage portion of Gonzaga’s preseason tip-off event. He assisted Emmanuel Innocenti’s winning basket for the “White” squad.

It was a small tease of what’s to come. A sliver of spotlight before six months in the shadows.

“Off to the cave,” Smith wrote in an Instagram post two days later.

At first, it took Smith time to warm to the idea of redshirting. Spending a year in the “cave” didn’t sound so good to someone who was ready to test himself at the Power Five level after two decorated seasons at Colgate. Other high-majors were willing to give him the opportunity right away. Smith’s finalists included Gonzaga and Davidson, but also Washington and Cal. Only Gonzaga proposed a redshirt year.

“I started to kind of talk and sell it then he was like, ‘Coach I don’t think I’d be interested in that,’ ” Gentry said. “I was like, OK, we’ll scratch that one off the list. But I ended the conversation with, ‘Hey, just think about it for the night.’ ”

Smith obliged. After chatting with Gentry, he had thorough conversations with those in his immediate circle. At 6 a.m. the next day, Gentry received a text message from the guard. No guarantees he’d commit, but Smith was at least willing to hear the rest of Gonzaga’s recruiting pitch.

“Very hard to do that, especially nowadays when that doesn’t really happen that much,” Nembhard said of Smith’s decision to redshirt. “But I told him this in the recruitment, if there’s going to be one place where you do that at, Gonzaga’s the spot.”

Nembhard tried to put himself in Smith’s shoes when asked if he would have entertained redshirting between a productive two-year stint at Creighton and transferring to Gonzaga.

“Nah, I definitely wouldn’t want to do that,” Nembhard said. “It’s tough.”

The toughest part is over, and in another sense, yet to come.

Smith assures there haven’t been any regrets.

“I am glad I did it,” Smith said. “I knew what I was getting myself into coming into it, and I knew it would be a process. I knew it would be eager. I knew I’d have these ups and downs with the emotions and I’m just trying to stay in the present, focus on getting better, learning the system, like I said, and it’s been good. Being around this team has been great.”

Smith’s appearance and player profile could make Nembhard comparisons unavoidable next season. From a distance, it might be hard for someone to tell the 6-foot point guards with frizzy black hair apart.

Gonzaga’s hopeful there are more similarities on the floor.

“I don’t want to say he’s just shadowing me and learning everything I do, because he’s his own person, he’s going to do his own thing,” Nembhard said. “But I think he’s done a good job taking everything in, learning what he can and applying it when he can, so this has been an invaluable year for him and I think it’ll show next year.”

Smith’s name recently came up in conversation between Gentry and Nembhard. They agreed it’ll be much easier for Smith to take the reins next season having watched Nembhard – and more important, observed Nembhard’s process – than taking on the same assignment after transferring this spring.

“I think if Braeden hadn’t been here during the redshirt year and it was him just transferring in now and it’s like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to now replace Ryan Nembhard, one of the best point guards in college basketball, assist record, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,’ ” Gentry said. “It would almost be like this mythical guy you’re replacing.”

It’s still a daunting assignment, to be sure.

Nembard played the position as flawlessly as any point guard has under Few, surpassing older brother Andrew – a starter on the Indiana Pacers team playing for an NBA championship Sunday night – as he climbed to the top of the various statistical leaderboards at Gonzaga. Smith might as well be stepping into size 20 shoes, but if it’s any consolation, he won’t be underprepared after a full year of practice battles and film sessions with Nembhard.

“I think that’s been the biggest part of his development is working with and against Ryan because their games are similar,” Gentry said. “Smaller point guards, pass-first type deal, ball-screen based. I even remember one of the first workouts we had with them together, I was almost like, ‘Hey, just kind of do it like Ryan does it,’ and it’s been kind of funny now, he’s really stolen some parts of Ryan’s game and made it his own, too.”

In 2022-23, Gonzaga’s lone season without a Nembhard on campus, point guard duties fell to Nolan Hickman, who returned to his more traditional shooting guard role the past two years starting alongside Ryan Nembhard.

Hickman commended Smith, a fellow Seattle native, for his focus and approach to the redshirt process.

“He’s been incredible, man, and he’s just so about business when it comes to basketball,” Hickman said. “It’s just great to see. He’s a young dude. He’s from over in my parts of Washington. He’s just a good dude. I’m glad to see him taking everything seriously, really zoning in and really paying attention to little things that are going on throughout the program so he could eventually take it on next year and know what to do with it.”

Gentry characterizes Smith as “diligent” and “cerebral.” Nembhard noted he’s “great vocal leader,” with the potential to be “a way better leader than I am.”

During practices last season, Gonzaga’s coaching staff would occasionally get on the starters and rotation players for their lack of communication.

It was a problem when the redshirting point guard’s voice was the loudest in the gym.

“It was almost like, ‘Gosh guys, Braeden’s redshirting and he’s being this vocal and being such a great leader,’ ” Gentry said. “Hey, that needs to raise the standard for everyone else.”

Roughly 30 minutes after Ben Gregg’s Gonzaga career came to a heart-wrenching end in Wichita, the veteran forward began handicapping the team’s prospects next season.

Naturally, there was one place to start.

“No one’s seen Braeden Smith yet and he’s going to be just another Ryan,” Gregg said, “which is hard to duplicate.”

“Really? He’s at that level?” a reporter followed up.

“Yeah,” Gregg said, “yeah, he is.”