Gonzaga confirms four of five starters from last season will return in 2024-25
Gonzaga men’s basketball fans collectively sighed with relief as the transfer portal officially closed Wednesday night.
As the clock was just about to strike 9 p.m. PST on May 1, the deadline for all players to enter the portal, the Bulldogs social media team posted a picture of the team with the caption “We back.”
The photo confirmed what most had expected — Mark Few is bringing back six of his top seven scorers, including four of five starters, from last season’s Sweet 16 team. Steele Venters, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, was also pictured. Pepperdine transfer Michael Ajayi was not pictured, though the program expects the All-WCC wing to join the team next fall.
No last-minute transfers or declarations for the NBA Draft from Graham Ike, Ryan Nembhard or Nolan Hickman. Ben Gregg and Braden Huff complete the frontcourt rotation behind Ike, while Dusty Stromer and Jun Seok Yeo will compete for minutes on the wing with Venters and Ajayi. Joe Few and walk-on Joaquim Aruz-Moore round out the 10-man squad.
Of course, there’s still room on the roster for more outside help. The Bulldogs have four open scholarships after Anton Watson (graduation), Pavle Stosic (transfer portal, Luka Krajnovic (transfer portal) and walk-on Colby Brooks (transfer portal) depart this offseason. Arkansas grad transfer Khalif Battle is scheduled for an official visit this weekend, as the 6-foot-5 guard will entertain the idea of joining Gonzaga’s backcourt room for next season.
Even so, based on the talented and experienced group of returners, the Bulldogs are in good shape heading into the fall.
The Zags are expected to return 81.4% of the minutes played from last season. That’s the highest retention rate since the 2005-06 season when Mark Few brought back seven of his top eight scorers from a team that finished the 2004-05 campaign ranked No. 10 in the AP Top 25 poll. Considering that there was far less player movement back then than there is today, as well as the trend of one-and-dones in the 2010s, Gonzaga has certainly adjusted to the new era of college basketball.
Last season, only two teams (Florida Atlantic and Columbia) returned at least 80% of their minutes from the year prior. Ten years ago, 10 teams boasted that return rate. Next season a projected seven teams are expected to have at least 80% of their roster back, though of those the Bulldogs are the only team that made the NCAA Tournament in 2024.
Recently, continuity has become less significant to win a national championship. UConn returned less than 43% of its minutes from last season’s title team, which had only 33.2% of the roster from the 2021-22 team. Since 2009, only six teams that returned over 60% of their roster were crowned national champions; none of them had higher than a 71% retention rate.
However, all of those previous champions had one thing in common — they all returned the same starting point guard from the season prior. In fact, seven of the past 10 national champions had the same point guard in the starting lineup from the season before. Two of those three exceptions (2023 UConn and 2016 Villanova) won with a first-year point guard before winning another championship later on with that same guard in the starting lineup (Tristen Newton for UConn, Jalen Brunson with Villanova).
That trend bodes well for the Bulldogs, who have started a different player at point guard every season since Josh Perkins was in uniform. Let alone the fact Gonzaga hasn’t even had the same starting backcourt in consecutive seasons in over a decade. That’ll change next fall when Nembhard and Hickman head into year two alongside each other, in which both juniors already have a feel for how the other plays and shouldn’t have to make many adjustments this time around.
The experience and continuity at the most important position in the sport are all there. As for the talent that’s coming back, Few returns three All-WCC players (Nembhard, Ike and Hickman) for the first time since the 2018-19 season when Rui Hachimura, Josh Perkins and Killian Tillie all came back to join Brandon Clarke, a young Corey Kispert and Zach Norvell Jr. for a run at the Elite Eight. Notably, that squad had seven future NBA players and three first-round picks; time will tell if the same can be said about the 2024-25 team.
Regardless, the Zags return the most experienced and talented group in a really long time. If history means anything, they’ll be one of the favorites to cut down the nets next April.
We back 😤 pic.twitter.com/G099cIDwAd
— Gonzaga Basketball (@ZagMBB) May 2, 2024
COLE FORSMAN
Cole Forsman is a reporter for Gonzaga Nation, a member of Sports Illustrated’s FanNation network. Cole holds a degree in Journalism and Sports Management from Gonzaga University.