Gonzaga Bulldogs roster tracker for 2025-26: Returners, departures and newcomers

The offseason is in full swing for the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

With the 2024-25 college basketball season in the books, the Zags turn their attention toward building the roster for the 2025-26 season and beyond. The 30-day window to enter the transfer portal opened March 24, and a few notable players across the country had already made their intention to switch schools clear during conference tournament week and the first weekend of March Madness.

Here's a look at who from the 2024-25 roster is eligible to return, graduating, transferring out and coming in as a newcomer.

ELIGIBLE TO RETURN

Guards:
Braeden Smith (redshirt), Emmanuel Innocenti, Cade Orness (walk-on), Joaquim Arauz-Moore (walk-on)

Forwards:
Steele Venters (redshirt), Noah Haaland (walk-on)

Centers:
Graham Ike, Braden Huff, Ismaila Diagne

Projected scholarships available: 7

Ike, who was not honored during senior night festivities, has one more year of eligibility to exercise if he decides to stay in college rather than go pro. The 6-foot-9 forward earned All-WCC honors this past season as Gonzaga's leading scorer with 17.3 points per game. If he opts to come back to Spokane for a third season, he could reunite in the frontcourt with Huff, who averaged more than 15 points per game while starting next to Ike for the final three games of the season.

Diagne flashed his ability to protect the rim some down the stretch of WCC play, notable in a 9-point, 4-rebound performance against Santa Clara in which he also recorded a block and a steal in 19 minutes off the bench to help the Bulldogs surge past the Broncos on the road.

Smith, a 6-foot-tall guard from Seattle, took a redshirt year after transferring in from Colgate last offseason. He averaged 12.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.7 rebounds with the Raiders in 2023-24, earning Patriot League Player of the Year honors while guiding his squad to the NCAA Tournament. He'll be a redshirt junior for the Bulldogs next season.

Patience was a virtue for Innocenti. The 6-foot-5 Italian logged just 5.2 minutes per game in nonleague play, but wound up playing a significant role down the stretch of the regular season and in the postseason because of his versatility on the defensive end of the floor and his discipline on the offensive end. Over Gonzaga's final 19 games of the season, which includes a stretch of three consecutive starts Innocenti in late January, he was on the floor 16.6 minutes per game and averaged 2.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals in those appearances. He also dished out 22 total assists while committing just four turnovers in that span.

Venters missed another full season due to injury. The Eastern Washington transfer sat out with a torn Achilles after a torn ACL kept him out of the 2023-24 season. Venters was named the Big Sky Player of the Year with the Eagles the season prior.

GRADUATING

Guards:
Ryan Nembhard, Nolan Hickman, Khalif Battle, Joe Few

Forwards:
Ben Gregg

Nembhard finished his four-year college career with 882 assists, the 22nd-most by a player in NCAA Division-I history. His 344 assists this past season led the country and was the fifth-most in a single season in NCAA history and the most in Gonzaga program history. In fact, it only took Nembhard two seasons (70 games) to finish with the fifth-most career assists in Gonzaga history (587, two shy of tying Jeremy Pargo for fourth).

Hickman came to Gonzaga with high expectations as a former four-star recruit in the 2021 class who decommitted from John Calipari and Kentucky to play for Mark Few instead. By his junior year, the Seattle native had blossomed into an all-conference caliber player, putting up 14.0 points while knocking down 41.3% of his 3-point attempts. In his senior year, Hickman drilled 44.5% of his 3-point attempts and put up 10.9 points per game.

Hickman played 139 games across his four-year career in Spokane, the seventh-most in program history, and knocked down the ninth-most 3-pointers in Gonzaga with 225 on 570 attempts (39.5% career 3-point shooter).

Gregg played a key role on some of Gonzaga's more talented squads in recent memory, often as a spark plug who provided a much-needed boost with his energy and hustle. The 6-foot-10 forward joined the team in 2020 after graduating high school early due to boys basketball being shut down in Oregon at the time, though his true freshman season in college was actually the 2021-22 campaign. Gregg was a role player early on before developing into an impact player in the starting lineup his junior season. He averaged a career-best 9.1 points his senior year and shot a WCC-best 72.9% on 2-pointers.

Gregg's 141 games played is the seventh-most in Gonzaga program history, while his 14 NCAA Tournament appearances are tied for third with Silas Melson.

Battle's one season in Spokane delivered some electrifying moments and memorable performances from the sixth-year guard. He crossed the 20-point threshold 11 times in a Gonzaga uniform, including a 24-point night in his NCAA Tournament debut against Georgia. The Zags went 10-1 in those instances, though Battle also impacted the game with his rebounding and overall ability to get to the rim and draw fouls. Battle shot 93.2% from the free-throw line this past season, which would be the highest of any Gonzaga player for their career.

TRANSFERRING OUT

Guards:
Dusty Stromer (Grand Canyon)

Forwards:
Graydon Lemke, Jun Seok Yeo, Michael Ajayi (Butler)

Ajayi, who led the WCC in scoring with the Pepperdine Waves in 2023-24, couldn't quite find the same consistency on the offensive end of the floor for the Bulldogs. The 6-foot-7 forward played significant minutes early in the season and even made 12 consecutive starts during nonconference play. Ajayi scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds against the Indiana Hoosiers in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, then had 14 points and six rebounds against the UConn Huskies about two weeks later in New York City. But a week later, he had back-to-back scoreless games against the Bucknell Bison and UCLA Bruins.

Ajayi's energy on the boards earned him high praise from his coach Mark Few early in the season, though the inconsistencies on the offensive end of the floor likely contributed to Ajayi's role being put in flux down the stretch of the regular season.

Ajayi committed to the Butler Bulldogs on April 7. Though listed as a senior last season, Ajayi will have another year of eligibility after the NCAA approved an extra season for seniors who previously competed at non-NCAA schools for one or more years.

Stromer was the first Gonzaga player to enter the transfer portal this offseason. The 6-foot-6 sophomore played significant minutes the moment he stepped foot on campus as a former four-star recruit, as he started 15 of his first 16 career games last season due to Venters' ACL injury. Stromer, a former four-star recruit from Notre Dame High School (California), played in 69 out of a possible 70 games during his time with the Zags, missing just one contest this past season due to illness, though his playing time and productivity took a dip as a sophomore. Stromer committed to the Grand Canyon Antelopes on April 2.

Yeo entered his name into the portal after he saw his role decrease his sophomore year as well. The 6-foot-8 sophomore from Seoul, South Korea, logged 57 minutes across 14 appearances in 2024-25, down from the 173 minutes he played in 25 games as a freshman in 2023-24.

After redshirting the 2024-25 season, Lemke enters the portal with four years of eligibility remaining.

NEWCOMERS

Wings/Forwards:
Davis Fogle (recruit), Jalen Warley (Virginia transfer)

Fogle is the lone member of Gonzaga's 2025 recruiting class at the moment. The 6-foot-7 Anacortes, Washington, native is a four-star recruit and the No. 34-ranked player in his class according to 247Sports. He transferred for his senior year of high school to play at Compass Prep in Chandler, Arizona.

Jalen Warley joined the Bulldogs as a transfer from Virginia mid-season following Tony Bennett's surprise retirement and will be eligible to play next season. Warley transferred to Virginia after three seasons at Florida State.

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