Small-school Gonzaga is now big brand
INDIANAPOLIS — Amid the torrent of tributes that Jalen Suggs received after sinking the shot of a lifetime to beat UCLA and preserve Gonzaga’s unbeaten season — former NBA star Dwyane Wade tweeting that it made him jump onto his kitchen table — one could have only come from teammate Joel Ayayi.
Ayayi, a guard from Bordeaux, France, who grew up learning what he described as “British English,” lavished some of that lingo on Suggs following his 40-footer at the overtime buzzer that banked through the net and the Bruins’ hearts.
“I fancy you,” Ayayi told him as they came off the court after the Bulldogs’ 9390 overtime win Saturday night in an NCAA tournament national semifinal.
That sentiment could double as the mantra of the increasingly talented high school prospects and transfers who have helped Gonzaga, a small private school in Eastern Washington, bludgeon bigger basketball powers on the way to becoming a national recruiting brand.
The Bulldogs (31-0) will face Baylor (27-2) on Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in the national championship game having beaten out not only the Pac-12 schools in their geographic footprint but also far bigger threats for the talent that has positioned them on the verge of college basketball’s first unbeaten season in 45 years.
Suggs, a five-star guard from West St. Paul, Minn., picked Gonzaga over the top-seeded team he will face in the season’s final game. Andrew Nembhard, a guard from Ontario, Canada, who spent his first two seasons at Florida, contemplated attending Duke before transferring to Gonzaga.
Gonzaga is also considered the front-runner for Chet Holmgren, a 7-footer from Minnesota who’s considered the top high school prospect in the class of 2021.
“If they get the Chet Holmgren kid, all bets are off,” Donny Daniels, a former assistant at Gonzaga under Mark Few and at UCLA under Ben Howland, said Sunday by telephone. “I mean, right now, they’re a national destination. So beating the Pac-12? No, they’re beating everybody.”
This is no longer that plucky little school that had to scrape together a roster of international finds, regional prospects and transfers. Gonzaga has amassed talent for years, but a symbolic shift occurred in 2016 when forward Zach Collins became the first McDonald’s
All-American to sign with the Bulldogs out of high school. He stayed only one year before heading to the NBA.
Gonzaga’s current roster features three likely NBA first-round draft picks in Suggs, sharpshooter Corey Kispert and mustache stroking big man Drew Timme, with more likely on the way.
Coaches and players alike tout the family culture and emphasis on development that have been staples of Few’s run that started in 1999, but five consecutive 30-win seasons also tend to be significant draws.
“Definitely over the last six or seven years, I’ve seen an uptick because it’s all these kids know,” Gonzaga assistant coach Brian Michaelson said. “We’ve never missed an NCAA tournament in these kids’ lifetimes. We’re at a point now where these kids being recruited, in their formative years, we’ve never done anything less than win 30 games and be in a Sweet 16 and we’ve been to two Final Fours.”
Only two of Gonzaga’s top seven players — Kispert and reserve forward Anton Watson — hail from Pac-12 states. Reserve guard Dominick Harris is the only player on the roster from California.
Ayayi, whose jump shot is as smooth as the famed Cabernet
Sauvignon from his home region, said he was recruited by a couple of Pac-12 schools but picked Gonzaga because of its small-town feel and history of international players.
In recent years, the roster has included Killian Tillie (France), Rui Hachimura (Japan) and Jacob Larsen (Denmark). The Bulldogs’ pipeline to France started with Ronny Turiaf, who would go on to play for the Lakers and Clippers. Gonzaga lured Adam Morrison, who went on to become an All-American, mostly because he was a local kid. Highly coveted point guard Jordan Farmar nearly picked the Bulldogs over UCLA before being wooed by Howland upon his arrival in Westwood.
“He was going to Gonzaga at one point,” Daniels said of Farmar, “but the new staff came in and kind of changed his mind.”
Others who started their careers at Pac-12 schools and finished them with the Bulldogs include Jordan Mathews (California) and Nigel Williams-Goss (Washington).
Suggs said he came to Gonzaga to win a national championship but still faces questions about opting for the juggernaut of the West Coast Conference over more established brands.
“People always ask me, ‘Why Gonzaga? Why is this a place you want to come, a small city in Washington, a small conference in the WCC?’ ” Suggs said. “It’s not like the Big Ten, the Big 12 or any of that. I mean, for the people and for the culture, that’s why I chose to come here. And I knew Coach [Few] had the utmost trust in me and believed in me to make plays at all times.”
Michaelson acknowledged that the Pac-12’s having placed UCLA in the Final Four and USC and Oregon State in regional finals could bolster the conference’s recruiting profile. To him, it won’t alter the pecking order when it comes to who’s best in the West.
“Our rise has caused us to be able to recruit against anybody,” Michaelson said, “whether that’s the Pac-12 to the blue bloods and to be able to draw the right person to Spokane, but it’s about the right fit and the right kid. That’s never going to change.”