Few seeks to return No. 21 Gonzaga to national title contention

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Coach Mark Few wants to return No. 21 Gonzaga to the list of national title contenders, and he's assembled a loaded team to get there.

Gonzaga went 26-9 last season, and finished 14-4 in the West Coast Conference, losing the regular-season title to archrival Saint Mary's.

The Zags lost to top-seeded Houston in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the first time since 2012 they did not advance to the second weekend. Their nine losses were the most for a Gonzaga team since the 2010-11 squad went 25-10.

“That’s kind of my total focus,” the 62-year-old Few said of competing for a national title in his 27th season. “If we can’t do that anymore, I’m out of here. You’ll catch me on a river somewhere, fly fishing.”

It appears on paper that the fly fishing will have to wait.

Gonzaga returns an explosive front court of Graham Ike (6-foot-9, 17.3 points per game) and Braden Huff (6-foot-10, 15.3 ppg after becoming a starter).

“I think the combination of those two coming back, we should be one of the best front courts in the country,” Few said. “I think they showed that down the stretch at the end of last year.”

Huff didn't become a starter until last year's WCC Tournament, when Few was looking for a way to beat Saint Mary's after losing to the Gaels twice in the regular season.

“It’s fun to watch Graham from the bench for sure, but to share the court with him, it’s way more fun,” Huff said.

An ESPN ranking of the top 100 players in college basketball featured Ike at No. 13 and Huff at 66.

The Zags lost Ryan Nembhard, Nolan Hickman and Khalif Battle from last year's team, but Few spent the offseason filling his roster with talented newcomers.

One key addition is Adam Miller, a transfer from Arizona State who figures to be the starting shooting guard.

Miller is expected to improve Gonzaga's three-point shooting, which last year was the worst in Few's tenure.

Miller began his college career at Illinois in 2020-21, and made stops at LSU in 2022-23 and Arizona State the past two seasons. Last year he shot 42.9% from three-point range.

Candidates for point guard include Braeden Smith, who averaged 12 points, five assists and five rebounds per game, and helped lead Colgate to the NCAA Tournament in 2024.

The Zags also landed a former five-star recruit in Virginia transfer Jalen Warley, a 6-foot-7 guard.

The Zags got some good news in late October, when a Spokane County Superior Court judge ruled that 25-year-old Tyon Grant-Foster was eligible for one more season. The NCAA had previously decided that the transfer from Grand Canyon had exhausted his eligibility.

Grant-Foster, a wing who has NBA potential, sued the NCAA, arguing a sudden cardiac arrest he suffered during DePaul’s season opener in 2021-22 had sidelined him for two seasons.

“He literally died, his heart stopped not once but twice when he was on the floor and he didn’t have two years of basketball,” Few said in arguing for an additional year. Any appeal by the NCAA is not likely to be heard before the conclusion of this season.

One intriguing returnee is sharpshooter Steele Venters, a guard who missed two entire seasons with injuries. He averaged 15 points per game in his junior year at Eastern Washington, and was named MVP of the Big Sky Conference.

This is Gonzaga’s final season in the WCC after more than 40 years. Few has won 22 regular-season titles and 20 conference tournament championships since taking over the program in 1999.

Gonzaga will become one of nine teams in the newly reconstituted Pac-12 for 2026-27. In addition to longtime Pac-12 members Oregon State and Washington State, the newcomers are Texas State, San Diego State, Boise State, Utah State, Colorado State and Fresno State.

This marks the 25th straight season Gonzaga has been ranked in The Associated Press poll and the 16th consecutive year the Zags have appeared in the preseason poll. Gonzaga joins Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina as the only programs to appear in the past 16 preseason AP Polls.

As usual, Few scheduled many of the nation's top programs in the non-conference season. Gonzaga opens at home versus Texas Southern on Monday. Then they play No. 15 Alabama, No. 23 Creighton, Oklahoma, Arizona State, Maryland, Kentucky, Oregon and UCLA.

One key goal is to win the WCC regular season title. Saint Mary's beat the Zags twice in the regular season last year to claim the crown. But the Zags beat the Gaels in the WCC Tournament title game to advance to the NCAAs.

The Zags pounded Georgia 89-68 in the first round. Then they lost to Houston 81-76 in a game where Ike and Huff combined for 38 points.

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