Massamba Diop

Uh, they got Brandon Huff back, 17 points a game last season.

Uh, uh, Massamba Diop from Arizona State should be a really good player with a lot of potential at center for them.

Mark Few's always a good coach.

Gonzaga's always gonna be competitive.

But we're used to seeing Gonzaga debut in the top 10.

And this year's roster with the, the high-profile additions of Massamba Diop, with the expected step forward of Davis Fogel, and certainly the return of a potential All-American in, in Braden Huff, like it, we feel like we, we have a roster that is certainly capable of being a top 10 team, maybe even a top five team.

And I, and I don't think that being 14th in the KenPom preseason rankings denies that necessarily.

It's just usually KenPom is the validation of like, "This team is as good as we think." And now we're kind of getting that validation from Evan Miakawa's website, Evan Mia, which actually has Gonzaga up at number six.

Of course, five players move on in their, uh, p- professional playing careers.

And then we had the, the landing of Massamba Diop in the transfer portal.

Before that, the landing of Isaiah Harwell in the transfer portal.

Of course, Jack Cahill was committed to the program.

Of course, Mario Santsuberry at that time was, was returning to the program as well.

So, I mean, there was times this off season, like fairly deep into the off season, times in the year where, where the vast majority of college basketball rosters and/or starting lineups were set.

Like the starting lineup at, at a school like Yukon and Florida and some other programs was set at a time when Gonzaga was projected to start Mario Santsuberry, Jack Cahill, Davis Fogel, Braden Huff, and Massamba Diop.

Like, that was a projected starting lineup for Gonzaga for maybe not quite half the off season, but a, a multiple months of the off season.

But, like, when he came into last year with no expectation and then did great, and he's gonna come into this year with a, a significantly higher amount of expectation, and yet already that does [laughs] not seem to be bothering him at all.

I mean, I, we'd be having a conversation about Davis Fogel if the only thing that he did on Saturday was jump over 7'1" center Massamba Diop, which he did, to win the dunk contest.

[laughs] Um, if that's the only thing he did, we'd be talking about it.

But instead, after that, in a 20-minute scrimmage, Davis Fogel scored 30 points on 11 of 15 shooting.

I think that's a fair ceiling for this Gonzaga team if they're unable to get some favorable rulings from any sort of judge in the Spokane area.

I really like the addition of Massamba Diop from ASU.

You got David Spoelstra coming back.

You bring in McDonald's All-American, Isaiah Harwell.

Now you have him back at full force after he was averaging 17 plus points per game, five and a half rebounds per game last season, and he's got even more help around him.

Massamba Diop, who was over at Arizona State as a seven foot one freshman, two plus blocks, six plus rebounds per game.

Davis Vogel showed some nice signs of life with about eight and a half points per game last season.

Additionally, you've got a few other mixers and shakers that I think are gonna be very interesting for this team.