How is Gonzaga reinventing itself without Braden Huff and Graham Ike? ‘We had to do things we’ve never dreamed of’

From late Friday morning to early Saturday evening, ideas and strategies ping-ponged back and forth as members of Gonzaga’s coaching staff scraped together a plan for the team’s next West Coast Conference game at Seattle U.

Over the last two seasons, opposing coaches have lost both sleep and hair preparing for Mark Few’s highly acclaimed frontcourt. Houston’s Kelvin Sampson likened Braden Huff and Graham Ike to the Boston Celtics’ legendary duo of Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. UConn’s Dan Hurley named them the best offensive frontcourt tandem in the country. 

Since Huff and Ike linked up in Gonzaga’s starting lineup last March, Few’s teams have a 21-2 record, with the only losses coming to Sampson’s national runner-up Houston and the Michigan team currently sitting No. 1 at KenPom and No. 3 in the AP poll.

This time last week, they might have been the top two candidates to win WCC Player of the Year – not just Gonzaga’s top two candidates.

If other staffs are losing sleep over the Huff/Ike assignment, it provides a small window into what Gonzaga’s coaches probably went through Friday knowing they’d have neither player at their disposal for the first time in three seasons.

“It was a lot of different thoughts,” assistant Brian Michaelson said.

Coming out of Thursday’s road win against Washington State, the Zags were cautiously optimistic at least one member of their touted frontcourt would be available to play against Seattle U at Climate Pledge Arena.

Gonzaga rearranged rotations and reworked plans when Huff injured his left knee in practice earlier in the week – a setback that could keep him off the court until March – but with Ike still in the picture, it wasn’t necessary to hit the panic button quite yet.

The Zags start both bigs and understandably want Huff and Ike on the floor in closing lineups, but their minutes are usually staggered from the first media timeout to the final break in the second half depending on score, situation and foul trouble.

Not to mention, over the last three seasons 68 of Ike’s 85 starts have come in lineups without Huff. So, if the Zags had to move forward with one of the two, there was a level of comfort with what it would look like.

Then Friday arrived. A morning checkup on Ike came with more sour news. After an awkward fall down the stretch of an 86-65 win at WSU, swelling in the forward’s right ankle worsened overnight and the Zags eventually ruled the all-conference forward out of Saturday’s game in Seattle.

No Huff for four to eight weeks. No Ike for at least 40 minutes. Back to square one.

“We knew that it wouldn’t change everything we did, but especially on offense,” Michaelson said.

Over the next 24 hours, Mark Few and his coaching staff shuffled through the lineup and rotation possibilities – many of which they’d never had to consider.

Gonzaga landed on a starting lineup with sophomore center Ismaila Diagne, but that probably didn’t come without some consternation. Diagne had never made a college start. Outside of last year’s road win at Santa Clara, the 7-footer hadn’t played extended minutes in a close game since arriving in the U.S. from Real Madrid last season, usually subbing in late in the second half of blowout victories.

There were other reasons to question if Diagne could hold up, and for how long, against a big, physical Seattle U team. It didn’t garner the same attention, but the sophomore was actually the first frontcourt player on Gonzaga’s injury report last week, banging up his knee days before the team drove to Pullman. It wasn’t a given Diagne would be able to suit up against the Cougars, let alone start and anchor the frontcourt for 20 minutes against the Redhawks.

“Izzo got dinged up last week and was questionable and fought for us down in Pullman to get five minutes,” Michaelson said. “Really, really fought for us tonight to get 20.”

The Zags spent time mulling other options. How sustainable was a smaller lineup against Seattle U posts Austin Maurer (7-0) and Houran Dan (6-10)? How would that impact Gonzaga’s guard and wing rotations? Who would play the small-ball center role?

“We had to do things with that small lineup at both ends that we’ve never dreamed of, the five guards, but we really had to spend the time focusing on offense because you’ve got guys that haven’t played much offense now as the main group,” Michaelson said. “You’ve got guys that were playing a different spot, a different position.”

Everything was on the table. Walk-on forward Noah Haaland – someone who’d played 30 career minutes over two seasons – registered five first-half minutes to give Diagne a breather. Freshman center Parker Jefferson, who’s using a redshirt this season, was available off the bench as an emergency option and dressed for the first time all year.

Few and his assistants essentially had 24 hours to build a strategy, communicate it to Gonzaga players in a way that was easy to digest and drill down on the plan during film sessions and walkthroughs in Seattle.

“We haven’t had any time to practice,” Few said, “you’re just walking through some stuff.”

The only silver lining? Opponents had even less time to prepare for the new-look units Gonzaga was rolling out.

WSU, anticipating heavy doses of Huff and Ike, learned about Huff’s injury shortly after Gonzaga’s team bus arrived at Beasley Coliseum’s loading dock.

“We had one little wrinkle with some Huff ball screens that we didn’t do,” Cougars coach David Riley said. “For the most part, we kind of stuck with what we planned on doing.”

With knowledge of Huff’s injury, Seattle U prepared for Gonzaga expecting Ike would get more post touches than usual. Roughly 90 minutes before tip, Redhawks coach Chris Victor arrived to watch the visitors go through pregame warmups. It’s possible that’s when Victor saw Ike in sweatpants and a walking boot, giving Seattle U just over an hour to scratch the defensive coverages they’d drawn up for Ike.

“Because for as different as it was for us and as short as it was, we had no time to physically prep for it … they didn’t have time to prepare for no Graham,” Michaelson said. “As you should for Graham. How many post doubles can you figure out, how do you keep the ball away from him and how do you guard his ball screens? Then we come out and all the sudden you’ve got Izzo, who’s a different entity and you’ve got five guards running around.

“So now teams will have kind of time to prepare for those lineups. So we’ve got to be better with them.”

Pepperdine (6-14, 1-6), which visits Gonzaga (19-1, 7-0) for Wednesday’s 6 p.m. (KHQ/ESPN+) tipoff at McCarthey Athletic Center, may not know exactly what to expect but the Waves should have counters for lineups with Ike and without him. They’ll have a better feel for Diagne and likely a plan for Gonzaga’s small-ball look, where Jalen Warley fills in at center.

Ike’s availability is uncertain and if the senior’s ankle pain is still lingering by Wednesday night, the Zags might elect to give him three more days of rest with two big WCC challenges coming GU’s way, this Saturday against San Francisco and next week against Saint Mary’s.

“We at least have Thursday’s film and tonight’s film of what does this look like at both ends, what do the small lineups look like with Graham, Izzo’s really stepping up and then what does it look like with Graham hurt?” Michaelson said. “If that happens again on Wednesday, what does that look like with Noah and Izzo and again that small lineup?”

The Zags have proven they’re adaptable. Despite 10 starting lineup changes this season, Few’s team is still sitting at just one loss. With two All-American frontcourt players injured last week, Gonzaga responded with a pair of 21-point road wins.

“Again, just keep reinventing ourselves, kind of learn from tonight and what we were able to do,” Michaelson said. “Take the things that worked and hopefully stick with those and then take some of the things that didn’t work and figure out how to fix those and make them better.”