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Gonzaga Basketball

Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard named WCC Player of Week; updated assist total gives PG school record

Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard smiles after defeating the San Francisco Dons on Saturday as graduate assistant JP Batista puts his hands on his shoulders in San Francisco. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
By Theo Lawson theol@spokesman.com(509) 459-5584

Upon further review, make it one more program record for Gonzaga point guard Ryan Nembhard.

Nembhard’s assist total from Gonzaga’s 95-75 win over San Francisco at the Chase Center has been updated to 16, tying him with Blake Stepp for the school’s single-game record. According to Gonzaga’s sports information department, a revision was made to Monday’s final box score, which initially had Nembhard at 15 assists against the Dons.

After totaling 31 assists during a two-game road sweep in the Bay Area, Nembhard was also named West Coast Conference Player of the Week on Monday. It’s Nembhard’s second honor in three weeks.

Nembhard became the first player with consecutive games of at least 15 assists against Division I opponents since 2011 and against Santa Clara, became the first DI player with 15 assists against the same opponent in a single season in 22 years.

During the team’s 95-76 win over Santa Clara, Nembhard became the 21st player in DI history to reach 300 assists in a single season. The national assists leader, who’s averaging 10.0 per game, had a 12-point, 15-assist double-double to help the Zags pull away from the Broncos for a road Quad 1 win.

Nembhard turned around four days later and scored eight points to go with 16 assists in a 20-point Quad 1 win over the Dons, helping Gonzaga secure the No. 2 seed at the upcoming WCC Tournament.

The senior’s 311 assists rank No. 13 in single-season Division I history and are 60 more than Purdue’s Braden Smith, who ranks No. 2 nationally with 251 assists. Nembhard’s 18 double-digit assist games lead all college basketball players and he helped GU break the WCC’s single-season team record (conference games) with 344 total assists.

Portland’s Austin Rapp was named the WCC’s Freshman of the Week for the sixth time this season.

• Also Monday, Nembhard was not among the five finalists for the Bob Cousy Award honoring the nation’s top point guard.

The finalists are: Alabama’s Mark Sears (19.1 ppg, 5.0 apg), Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. (16.9, 4.0), Marquette’s Kam Jones (18.4, 6.2), Purdue’s Smith (16.0, 8.7) and Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler (13.7, 7.2).

Fellow Gonzaga guard Braeden Smith, who is redshirting this year, weighed in on the snub with a post on X.

“Ryan is having one of the best passing seasons in the history of this sport and not being recognized does not make any sense.”