Tyon Grant-Foster quickly finding his way in Gonzaga’s offense

Tyon Grant-Foster had an abbreviated preseason with Gonzaga, initially waiting for the NCAA to rule on his waiver and eventually going to court to gain his eligibility on Oct. 27, just a week before the season opener.

He’s proven to be a quick study on the basketball court, even though some rust would be understandable given the limited amount of time he’s had with teammates and coaches.

Grant-Foster, who scored a team-high 15 points in a season-opening win over Texas Southern last Monday, followed that up with 14 points, seven rebounds, three dunks, one assist, one steal and one block in No. 21 Gonzaga’s 83-68 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday night.

“I’ve been trying to adapt (offensively and defensively) fairly quickly,” the 6-foot-7 wing said. “I kind of have to. Coach (Mark) Few and coach (Stephen) Gentry have been very helpful when it comes to that. I feel like it’s coming together. I’m starting to figure out ways to score within the offense, also when they need me to as well.”

The Grand Canyon transfer started the season opener because an assistant coach mistakenly put his name instead of Adam Miller’s with the first five in the scorebook. Grant-Foster came off the bench against the Sooners and immediately provided a spark at both ends of the floor. He piled up 10 points and four rebounds in just nine first-half minutes as Gonzaga raced in front 49-30.

He scored on a dunk, a 3-pointer, a layup and a putback in the opening half.

“It’s very difficult,” Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said of dealing with Grant-Foster and bigs Graham Ike and Braden Huff. “If you start paying so much attention to the two bigs, thinking about trapping and you start staring at them and you’re about to throw it in, the next thing you know they’ll back cut you.

“They got us on about three or four back cuts because there’s so much attention on those two bigs. Grant-Foster went backdoor for a dunk. They’re really good cutters.”

That’s how it’s supposed to look on the chalkboard and ideally in games, Zags coach Mark Few said.

“Hopefully that’s going to be one of the beauties of this team,” Few said. “I think we’ll have different guys stepping up every night. Tonight these three guys (Grant-Foster, Jalen Warley and Mario Saint-Supery) were great, but night in and night out you’re going to have to deal with our bigs. It starts with them, they’re at the top of the scouting report.

“What these guys showed is we’re certainly not one-dimensional.”

Warley contributed 13 points and eight boards while Saint-Supery chipped in eight points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals.

“The offense kind of takes what the defense gives them,” Few said. “They were out pressuring, they were in the lanes, so our guys just instinctively know they need to basket cut.

“Also, I think Ty is beginning to understand, especially on that baseline, if he cuts a lot of times these guards are going to find him or the bigs will even find him. He’s a weapon down there.”