Why Davis Fogle is on track to be next in line at Gonzaga: ‘He’s going to do some legendary stuff’

Gonzaga fans may not have known exactly how to interpret what they were seeing from Davis Fogle during the early stages of the wing’s freshman season.

They just knew they wanted to see more.

A glimpse into the future usually came in short bursts – often in games where Gonzaga was nursing a 20- or 30-point lead, in no real danger of squandering the victory. Fogle would head to the scorer’s table with 10-15 minutes remaining on the game clock. Blink and he was already in the scoring column. Go to the bathroom and he was in double figures by the time you returned.

If life comes at you fast, patented second-half Fogle flurries arrived even faster.

Eleven points in 10 minutes against Texas Southern. Nineteen points in 15 minutes against Southern Utah. Eight points in six minutes against Maryland. Fifteen points in 18 minutes against North Florida. Fifteen points in 16 minutes against Pepperdine.

Almost as if Fogle wasn’t seeing defenders, only dwindling digits on the game clock. No time to waste for a freshman who never knew when the next opportunity would come.

“Oh yeah, 100%,” Fogle said. “I was trying to get buckets.”

In November, December and early phases of January, it was the treat for fans who decided to stick it out at McCarthey Athletic Center late into the second half of blowout games against overmatched opponents.

When the Zags were downshifting to cruise control, Fogle was frantically switching into attack mode. Long, calculated strides to the hoop were conducive to quick baskets, allowing him to score at a point-per-minute pace. Contested shots looked just as good as uncontested ones.

“I do have to admit I think the amount he was able to score in such a short time even surprised me a little bit and was a really good sign,” Gonzaga assistant Brian Michaelson said. “Like dude, this guy’s a good player. … He has a gift. And a gift to score is hard, not everybody has that.”

The greats at Gonzaga have, though, and while it may be too early to lump Fogle into that category, it’s also hard to look away – or try not to anticipate what might be possible in a year’s time.

Injuries and lineup alterations have pressed Fogle into an expanded role and the freshman’s averaged 10.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists in the team’s last 15 games, logging 23.2 minutes since becoming a staple in Mark Few’s rotation.

Young players can shrink in big moments, but Fogle went the opposite direction in Tuesday’s WCC Tournament championship game against Santa Clara, scoring 13 points to go with eight rebounds, six assists, two steals and zero turnovers.

“I think he’s going to do some legendary stuff in a Gonzaga uniform when it’s all said and done,” senior teammate and locker mate Jalen Warley said.

• • •

Fogle only ranks ninth on Gonzaga’s roster in minutes played, but it’s possible he’s leading the team in hours invested behind the scenes.

Michaelson approaches any comparison with trepidation, but Fogle’s work ethic is reminiscent of another freshman who arrived in Spokane with unrivaled drive and ambition.

A particular 7-footer who wore No. 34.

“I do not want this in any way to be a comparison to the way Davis is as a player right now, but Chet Holmgren you had to lock out of the gym,” Michaelson said. “He was working out with people and then he would text people he hadn’t worked out with so he could work out again. We had to get on a group chat of hey, Chet’s done. He’s already been in here multiple times a day.

“… Chet’s work ethic is absolutely second to none and Davis has a hunger like that that’s really cool.”

Fogle’s typically the first or second player on the court two hours before home games – a role he often trades with fellow freshman Mario Saint-Supery. With his increased workload and usage, coaches have advised Fogle to be more intentional with the extra work he’s getting in. Two workouts in a day will suffice, no need for a third.

“Let’s be smart,” Michaelson said. “Hey, you’ve shot this morning, you’ve practiced, you don’t need to come back tonight. Helping those guys find that balance, it’s a fine balance because obviously the last thing you want to do is kill the amount of work he puts in and how special that is and the confidence it gives him.”

Fogle is still on the frail side, but he arrived at Gonzaga early last summer weighing 185-190 pounds. Through offseason strength sessions with Gonzaga strength and conditioning coach Travis Knight, he packed on 12-15 pounds before the fall semester started.

Fogle also added more protein to his daily diet, with dinners that often consisted of steak, salmon or pasta. Throughout the day, he’d squeeze in protein shakes and make sure he was fueling his body almost every hour.

The freshman was part of a solid strength and conditioning program at AZ Compass Prep last season, but still needed to make considerable upper- and lower-body gains when he arrived in Spokane. Knight also targeted hip mobility as an area of weakness and helped Fogle become more flexible through extensive stretching and elastic band routines.

“When I got here, my hips were pretty tight,” Fogle said. “I’m not that flexible and I think I’ve gotten more flexible too, just doing more band work.”

• • •

Gonzaga isn’t inviting the comparisons, but there’s another that’s hard to miss for anyone who’s been watching the Zags since the turn of the millennium.

The Washington roots. The slender frames. The messy hair. The unwavering confidence. The will to score.

No, it isn’t likely Fogle will put up Adam Morrison numbers at any point in his career. Slim chance that he’ll be a college national player of the year. May not even be at Gonzaga long enough to scratch the surface of what the former Mead High star accomplished over three college seasons.

“I think Adam sometimes gets, I don’t want to say lost in the shuffle but people forget, national player of the year, he averaged 30,” Michaelson said. “Like, that’s impossible, nobody can do that anymore, especially at the guard position. He was the third pick in the NBA draft, he was All-Rookie team. These are unfair things.”

And yet?

“The work ethic and the confidence, yes. No question,” Michaelson said. “I think Adam had a little more of the brashness and the loudness, but the confidence and the wanting to work and the believing in themselves, I see a lot of similarities.”

As Fogle was piling up points in short spurts at the start of the year, Gonzaga’s coaches even found themselves drawing parallels at times.

“Early in the year when he was getting some of those buckets, (Stephen) Gentry played with him, coach Few coached him, I played with Adam,” Michaelson said. “We’d sit there and maybe say to each other, I don’t know if anybody since Adam’s had the confidence to do that as a freshman. Just going for it like that as a freshman.”

Morrison, who’s had a courtside view of Fogle’s freshman season as the color commentator on Gonzaga’s radio broadcasts, recently acknowledged the comparison, admitting the freshman has a “scorer’s gene” and “all those intangibles you need to be successful.”

The other thing he needed? Opportunity.

It didn’t exist at the start of the season, but Fogle entered the rotation in earnest once junior forward Braden Huff was sidelined with a left knee injury.

“That’s just 20 points you lose right there,” Fogle said. “It was really like, look, we need your aggression. … That was really the conversation.”

Fogle essentially got a “DNP,” playing less than a full minute in Gonzaga’s Jan. 8 game against Santa Clara. Nine days later, with Huff and top scorer Graham Ike unavailable at Seattle U, he was a primary source of offense, scoring 13 points on nine shot attempts while playing a season-high 24 minutes. A week after that, he logged 32 minutes against USF, scoring 15 points with nine rebounds.

Fogle may not be scoring at the same point-per-minute pace he was at the start of the year, but he’s evolved as a defender, rebounder and distributor, pulling down no fewer than five rebounds in each of Gonzaga’s last three games and delivering six assists in two of the last four.

“I would just say the word used is I’ve learned a lot. Learning,” Fogle said. “At the start of the year, kind of just playing at the end of the game but I think with the approach, I’m going to make the most of it and then every day in practice it was like, I’m going to chip away, chip away, I’m going to earn my spot.”

The Zags aren’t trying to harness Fogle’s aggression, but they’ve had to repurpose it now that he’s sharing the floor with a high-volume scorer like Ike and playmaking wings like Tyon Grant-Foster and Warley.

“I think if I’ve got an open look, I’m going to take it. If I got a lane, I’m going to take it,” Fogle said. “Then obviously you’re there on the wing, come off the ball screen. I would say first look is my pull-up, but if not, you know you’ve got an All-American rolling to the basket and then you know you’ve got an All-American posting up on the block.

“So it’s like, that’s an 80 percenter when he gets the ball. Even more down there on the block. So, obviously hunting that more where when I wasn’t playing with them, it was more like, you go do you.”

Fogle may not be as ball dominant as he was in November and December, but he’s identified other ways to stay involved on the offensive end, making strides as an off-ball cutter, 3-point shooter and offensive rebounder.

“How about the confidence of a freshman on Tuesday (against Santa Clara)?” Michaelson said. “We hadn’t led all game and we’re down two and he gets that ball on the wing and hits the 3 to give us our first lead. I think his ability to knock down the 3 here or there, his ability to cut.

“I think he’s continued to grow cutting off screens and found some shots there. I’ve seen just kind of a gradual progression in three or four areas that have kind of allowed big picture to get better.”

• • •

Near the end of a 30-minute open locker room period at Orleans Arena last Monday, Adam Miller made a proclamation loud enough for every player and reporter to hear.

“Davis Fogle has great dunks!” the veteran guard shouted.

A day later, Fogle sat at his locker wearing a white WCC champions cap with a string of net attached to it. Resting behind the freshman was a sign he obtained from a fan after GU’s 79-58 victory, reading “Fogle fire.” Sitting next to him was Warley, the veteran wing Fogle’s possibly absorbed the most from during his rookie campaign.

“I think he’s really talented already,” Warley said. “I think he knew that, we knew that, but I think the maturity part of it is really going to take him over the top. … You’ve got work ethic, you’ve got talent and you’ve got maturity at that young of an age. I think he’s going to continue to inspire.”

Virtually everyone on Gonzaga’s roster shares that opinion.

“He’s got a huge ceiling. He can be a great player. He’s already a great player,” said Saint-Supery, who joined Fogle on the WCC All-Freshman team. “He plays hard and he has a big heart, that helps a lot.”

“The stuff he shows, the flashes, I feel like if he continues to develop whether that’s here or that’s somewhere else, he can be an NBA draft pick next year,” Grant-Foster said.

NBA scouts were asking about Fogle as early as last year, AZ Compass Prep coach Pete Kaffey told The Spokesman-Review in September. Others approached Morrison last week in Las Vegas to inquire about the freshman, he said on the latest episode of his podcast, “The Perimeter with Adam Morrison.”

“When he really tightens the screws on his total game – which he will – he’s going to be really good,” Morrison said.

Indeed, it may not be long before NBA front offices are fawning over the freshman standout. They’d be the next members of a growing line that seemingly includes every player, coach and fan at Gonzaga.

As he was called up to the podium for a postgame ESPN interview on Tuesday, Gonzaga’s pep band erupted in a chant: “F-O-G-L-E, Fogle, Fogle!”

“Been everything I’ve expected of being a Zag,” Fogle said of his freshman year. “It’s awesome.”