Promising freshman duo of Mario Saint-Supery, Davis Fogle played significant role for Gonzaga down stretch of season

PORTLAND – It’s been the year of the freshman in college basketball, but Gonzaga’s youth movement didn’t arrive in earnest until the final months of a season that culminated with 31 wins, a 23rd West Coast Conference Tournament championship and 28th straight NCAA Tournament bid.

Mario Saint-Supery and Davis Fogle weren’t typically lumped in with a highly acclaimed group of projected lottery picks that included Duke’s Cameron Boozer, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, Arkansas’ Darius Acuff and others, but they were among Gonzaga’s leaders in terms of scoring and significance by the time Mark Few’s team bowed out of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday with a Round of 32 loss to Texas.

It wasn’t always guaranteed to pan out that way for Saint-Supery and Fogle, capable young players who happened to be joining one of the most experienced rosters in college basketball. While others built around highly regarded freshmen, Gonzaga was bracing for the year of the super senior.

Few’s roster featured Graham Ike, a sixth-year forward who leaves as one of the top 60 scorers in NCAA Division I history; Tyon Grant-Foster, an eighth-year wing who celebrated his 26th birthday earlier this month; and Adam Miller, a sixth-year guard who wore his fourth college uniform this season. Sixth-year senior Steele Venters re-entered the equation for Gonzaga after missing consecutive seasons with injury and fifth-year senior Jalen Warley carved out a role after redshirting in 2024-25.

Not an easy rotation to crack for a 19-year-old who was new to the college game and another who was new to the American game.

Gonzaga’s depth at the wing position meant Fogle encountered more of a logjam than Saint-Supery, but both struggled to stay on the floor for extended stretches early in the year.

By the end of the season, the Zags couldn’t afford to go very long without at least one of them on it.

Over two NCAA Tournament games against Kennesaw State and Texas, Ike led all Gonzaga players with 44 points. Second in that category? Fogle, who had 17 points on Thursday and six more on Saturday for a total of 23.

Behind Ike and Emmanuel Innocenti, Saint-Supery was third in NCAA Tournament minutes (67) and led Gonzaga with 13 assists while committing four turnovers. Fogle registered 48 minutes at the Moda Center, leading GU’s bench in playing time.

“I think from Day 1 in the summer I’m like, I’m going to attack it, I’m not going to be scared,” Fogle said. “I’m not going to think this is (the seniors’) year. I was always like, I’m going to go beat someone out, I’m going to take someone’s spot. I think that was really good for me, that’s always been my mindset.”

Fogle became a dependable scoring option for a Gonzaga team that needed offensive reinforcements when junior forward Braden Huff went down with a knee injury in mid-January, ultimately missing the team’s final 17 games.

From Jan. 15, when he entered Gonzaga’s main rotation against Washington State, to Saturday’s season finale at the NCAA Tournament, Fogle was the team’s second leading scorer averaging 10.6 ppg, narrowly edging Grant-Foster (10.4).

Asked to quantify the development he made from November to March, Fogle responded with “a ton.”

“Obviously playing helps, when I wasn’t playing I was still getting developed,” he said. “Then once you’re in those end-of-game situations, I felt more comfortable out there every single day.”

Saint-Supery was absent for Gonzaga’s first summer session, arriving in June after his Spanish ACB season ended, and missed another crucial period in September when he left to join the Spanish national team for the FIBA European Championships. The point guard’s development was stunted again in December when he was diagnosed with the flu and Saint-Supery didn’t return to GU’s starting lineup until a Feb. 14 game at Santa Clara.

Saint-Supery never found his shooting rhythm in the NCAA Tournament, going just 2 of 12, but the point guard still led the team in 3-pointers made (48) and paced the Zags in 3-point percentage (40.3%). In GU’s final 13 games, Ike led the team in scoring 12 times. Saint-Supery was the only other player to do so, totaling 21 points in the WCC title game.

“Right now I cannot find nothing positive,” Saint-Supery said from a somber locker room after Saturday’s loss. “But obviously in the future, I’m going to look back to this season, this loss and I’m sure it’s going to help to learn for me and for everyone.”

Removing Huff from the picture, Fogle and Saint-Supery were tied as Gonzaga’s third-leading scorers, each averaging 8.6 ppg.

Both had standout seasons, but aren’t widely considered to be 2026 draft prospects in a year where 15-20 college freshmen are projected to be selected in the first and second rounds.

Not unlike the majority of college basketball programs, the Zags expect to have a few transfer portal defections, but they could theoretically build a 2026-27 roster around a quartet of returning starters/rotation players that includes Huff, Fogle, Saint-Supery and Innocenti.

After Saturday’s loss, Fogle said he hadn’t given much thought about the next phase of his career, only that he was focused on getting home to Spokane. The freshman did indicate he had unfinished business at Gonzaga and guaranteed the team’s Round of 32 loss will provide motivation going into the offseason.

“One-thousand percent. I want to do something this school hasn’t done,” Fogle said. “For myself, I just want to continue to grow my game and do big things here.”