Deep roster should help Gonzaga basketball offset a few unknowns

College basketball coaches aren’t ones for uncertainty.

Most prefer to know exactly what they have entering a new season, rather than learning through a series of high-pressure nonconference games and multi-team events (MTEs) early in the year.

When you’re still configuring the pieces of the puzzle in November and December, it can be hard to build the chemistry and confidence required when the calendar turns to February and March.

Not that college basketball programs have a choice in 2025-26.

Gonzaga is not only facing this conundrum at the moment, but a few others its peers across the country can relate to, and many they can’t.

The Zags officially checked in at No. 21 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, their lowest ranking since 2012. The fact that some insist the ranking is too low, while others maintain it’s a touch high, says everything you need to know about the roster 27th-year coach Mark Few has assembled this offseason.

One thing that can’t be argued: this is the most unpredictable Gonzaga team in years, which also makes it one of the most intriguing.

Fans may grow tired of hearing coaches gloat about their team’s depth in late October, only to see how vulnerable rotations are once the games begin, but it’s not a reach to say the Zags legitimately run 10 or 11 deep, with at least a few quality options at all five positions.

Practices and intrasquad scrimmages have been carefully dissected and analyzed as coaches try to condense the rotation down to the eight or nine players Few will probably stick to in tight games.

Moving pieces such as Tyon Grant-Foster’s eligibility saga, which was resolved for now when a Spokane judge granted him a preliminary injunction Monday that will allow him to play this season, and Emmanuel Innocenti’s rib injury, continue to make that challenging.

“I think we’re still in that process and I think every day you learn a little bit more,” assistant Stephen Gentry said. “We have had three intersquad scrimmages which are great for lineup variations and whether that’s playing big, playing small, trying different trios of guards.”

The projected rotation includes three players – point guard Braeden Smith, plus wings Jalen Warley and Steele Venters – who’ve all been in the program at least a year but have yet to appear on a box score.

Smith, a Colgate transfer who redshirted last year, got a crash course on playing point guard at Gonzaga from reigning NCAA assists leader Ryan Nembhard, and should bring Nembhard-like poise to the position.

Warley was a mid-year addition who took advantage of a 30-day window to enter the transfer portal when former Virginia coach Tony Bennett abruptly retired last October. His offensive impact is still to be determined, but Warley’s a high-level perimeter defender with good hands and long arms.

Venters is poised to make his Gonzaga debut after an emotional and arduous three-year journey that included ACL and Achilles injuries in successive seasons. In somewhat of a different mold than Warley, Venters is a gifted 3-point shooter but it’s unclear how enduring two of basketball’s most gruesome injuries in a 12-month span will affect his lateral movement and defensive ceiling.

“His belief in himself and the positive attitude that he had every day was really uplifting to the last two teams,” assistant Brian Michaelson said. “Considering he couldn’t play, he was a huge part of those teams, a huge part of our culture.”

Not unlike the three aforementioned players, freshman guard Mario Saint-Supery arrives at Gonzaga with heavy anticipation and also a few question marks. The Malaga, Spain, native fits somewhere into the backcourt picture, potentially as a starter next to Smith or possibly as the primary ball-handler when the junior point guard isn’t playing.

Saint-Supery’s played at arguably the highest level of professional basketball outside of the NBA, starring for Baxi Manresa of Spain’s Liga Endesa, and should give the Zags size, shooting and flair at the point guard position. A delayed arrival to the United States – Saint-Supery couldn’t join his new teammates until his pro season at Unicaja ACB finished – set the guard back a month or two and a subsequent call-up to Spain’s national team in July for EuroBasket cut into his time to integrate into Gonzaga’s system.

Early on, a safer bet at the 2-guard could be transfer Adam Miller, a fifth-year senior who’s made 221 career 3-pointers at Illinois, LSU and Arizona State, and shot 42.9% from outside last season with the Sun Devils.

“He’s made a lot of shots in a lot of buildings in a lot of big games,” Michaelson said. “His age and his toughness are really important.”

With all the newness, it’ll be a relief to have some familiarity.

Forwards Graham Ike and Braden Huff should ultimately be the tone-setters for this group, and their success starting together for a full season could determine whether the 2025-26 Zags can return to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Ike and Huff are the only returning players who averaged more than 2 ppg last season and both converted better than 57% of their shots a year ago.

“Their offense is going to take care of itself,” Michaelson said, “but if they can hit at a high level on those other things, I think that’s what’s going to determine their success and the success of our season.”

Innocenti was limited during the preseason after suffering an injury at Kraziness in the Kennel, but his three-and-D potential makes him a candidate to start at the “3.” Freshman Davis Fogle threw down four dunks in the team’s first exhibition and could carve out a role in the rotation.

The Zags may turn to sophomore center Ismaila Diagne when Ike and Huff experience foul trouble. The young 7-footer is still a work in progress on the offensive end, but he’s GU’s only legit lob threat and rim protector.