Gonzaga's Graham Ike projected as top-five scorer in college basketball

Dan Dickau. Adam Morrison. Kyle Wiltjer. Drew Timme. The list of Gonzaga basketball players under Mark Few to average 20 or more points in a single season is quite short, but at least one projection model believes that list will grow in 2025-26.

Bart Torvik - a college basketball analytics site - projects senior forward Graham Ike to average 20.1 points per game this upcoming season, the fourth-highest mark among power conference programs behind Texas Tech's JT Toppin (21.6), Mississippi State's Josh Hubbard (20.6), and Notre Dame's Markus Burton (20.4).

Ike came close to topping 20 points per game as a sophomore at Wyoming in 2021-22, when he averaged 19.5 points and 9.6 rebounds while earning All Mountain West honors.

His scoring hasn't quite hit that threshold in his two seasons with Gonzaga, starting at 16.5 points as a junior in 2023-24 and reaching 17.3 points last year, a nearly one point per game improvement made even more impressive by the fact that his minutes per game dropped from 24.1 to 22.9 last year.

How much Ike is able to stay on the floor is perhaps the biggest hurdle for the 6'9 forward's quest to average 20 per game. Foul trouble has long been an issue for the senior, and coach Few's rigid philosophy of benching players who pick up two first-half fouls often resulted in Ike spending large swaths of time riding the pine while backup Braden Huff picked up the slack on the block.

Gonzaga forward Graham Ike. | Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

This year's roster lacks the frontcourt depth of the past two seasons, however, with Huff projected to start alongside Ike rather than serving as his high-performing backup. Rising sophomore Ismaila Diagne is expected to take on a bigger role as the third big, but he played just 66 total minutes last year and could succumb to the same fouling issues that have plagued his teammates in the past.

Gonzaga's lack of 20 point per game scorers over the past 25 years has nothing to do with coach Few's offense - which has routinely finished top five in the country in points scored - but rather the egalitarian nature of the system which rewards unselfishness, ball movement, and getting out in transition rather than forcing the ball to a single player, no matter how dominant said player may be.

This upcoming season will likely be more of the same, with Ike and Huff both expected to score quite a bit around the rim while transfer portal additions Tyon Grant-Foster (20.1 points per game in 2023-24 at Grand Canyon) and Adam Miller (9.8 points per game last year at Arizona State) should each command quite a few looks per game.

Gonzaga forwards Graham Ike (13) and Braden Huff (34). | Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Toss in sharpshooter Steele Venters, redshirt guard Braeden Smith, and incoming freshman Mario Saint-Supery from Spain and you once again have a roster full of talented scorers at every position. That makes Gonzaga extremely difficult to game plan against, even if it rarely results in a single player averaging 20 or more points over the course of the season.

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