Top transfer portal big men still available for Gonzaga as frontcourt search intensifies

The biggest priority for Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs this offseason is replacing star big man Graham Ike.

The team is set to bring back redshirt senior Braden Huff, who averaged 17.8 points in 18 games last year before suffering a season-ending knee injury in mid-January.

His return gives the Zags a top-tier scorer down around the rim, and finding the right center to play alongside him is crucial for this team to reach its ceiling in the 2027 NCAA Tournament.

Fortunately, the transfer portal is chock full of excellent frontcourt players for the team to parse through.

Right now, according to EvanMiya's great transfer portal rankings, 27 of the top 100 available players in the portal are either power forwards or centers, including eight of the top 25 and 11 of the top 50.

Gonzaga's known targets

Two of those names are guys Gonzaga has already been publicly linked to in Arizona State's Massamba Diop (No. 26 overall) and SMU's Samet Yigitoglu (No. 95).

Diop is a 7'1 rising sophomore from Arizona State who scored 13.6 points with 5.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game last year in nearly 30 minutes per game. Diop has reportedly narrowed his search to Gonzaga and St. John's, and his low-post scoring and rim protection would pair extremely well with Huff in Spokane.

The same is true for Yigitoglu, who shot 63% from the field last year for the Mustangs, scoring 10.7 points with 7.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 28.9 MPG in 2025-26.

Big time targets

Knowing that Gonzaga is going after true centers who can score around the cup and protect the rim, a few other notable names currently available in the portal include No. 13 Somto Cyril (Georgia), No. 15 Najai Hines (Seton Hall) and No. 30 Eric Reibe (UConn).

Cyril led the SEC with 2.2 blocks per game as a sophomore last year at Georgia, made even more impressive by his 21.2 MPG. He also shot an absurd 75.9% on two pointers, putting him among the most elite centers in the country at the two skills - rim protection and low post scoring - that Gonzaga is pursuing the hardest.

Hines is also an elite shot blocker who played a limited role last year. The freshman averaged 2.2 blocks in 18 MPG, last year at Seton Hall, while shooting 60.2% from the field. At 6'10, he's not quite as big as some of the other centers on this list, but his elite athleticism and physicality make him a dream target for Few and the Zags.

Lastly, Reibe is a 7'1 center from Germany who played a reserve role last year for the national championship runner-up UConn Huskies. Reibe played just 13.8 minutes per game behind superstar Tarris Reed, but flashed tons of promise during a five-game stretch in late November-early December, averaging 12.8 points and 1.8 blocks in 25.2 MPG while Reed was on the shelf.

Apr 6, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan Wolverines forward Morez Johnson Jr. (21) loses control of the ball against UConn Huskies center Eric Reibe (12). | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Other familiar names

Gonzaga pursued Owen Freeman out of Iowa last year in the portal, but the big man instead landed at Creighton, where he was plagued by injuries. He's now back in the portal looking for another change of scenery, and while Gonzaga showed interest in the past, he's not much of a rim protector, which seems to be the team's priority at this point.

A few other available bigs Gonzaga faced this season, outside of Diop and Freeman, include Santa Clara's star freshman Allen Graves, Saint Mary's forward Paulius Murauskas, Alabama's Aiden Sherrell, and Kentucky's Brandon Garrison.

Murauskas and Sherrell don't fit what Gonzaga is looking for, while Graves is exploring the NBA draft and is more of a stretch four who might not be exactly what GU needs alongside Huff.

Garrison is a super athletic 6'11 big man who scores well around the rim, but his lack of rim protection likely puts him on the lower end of Gonzaga targets for now.

Cincinnati's Moustapha Thiam and UC Irvine's Kyle Evans are two elite shot blockers that Gonzaga could look at as well - proving once again this transfer portal class has all sorts of options for coach Few and his staff to look at to fill critical holes on the roster before the team migrates into the Pac-12 in 2026-27.