USA TODAY International Edition
Redshirt year a rite of passage at Gonzaga
Zags use that time to develop players, who embrace it
Zach Norvell Jr. is accustomed to playing highlevel basketball, having graduated from Chicago’s Simeon Career Academy, which has won four state championships this decade and counts the Milwaukee Bucks’ Jabari Parker among its recent alumni.
But what Norvell encountered last summer during his first offseason workout with the Gonzaga men’s basketball team was something else.
“It was so much faster,” Norvell said. “I was like, ‘ Oh God, I’m so tired. I’m taking plays off, that’s how tired I am.’ ”
Speed and endurance weren’t the only challenges Norvell encountered in his first months with the Bulldogs. He tore the meniscus in his left knee in July. By October he made a decision that numerous other Gonzaga players have made dating to the era before the program’s current streak of 19 NCAA tournament appearances: He decided to sit out this year as a redshirt.
The decision of Norvell, who was rated as one of the top 100 recruits entering college basketball this season, as well as that of fellow freshman Jacob Larsen reinforces an area in which Gonzaga zags where the other teams in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 zig. In a period in college basketball when many players in top 25 programs view the sport as a brief way station en route to the professional game, Gonzaga has a tradition of players intentionally prolonging their college careers.
Eleven of the 17 players on the Bulldogs roster have redshirted during their time at the school. The other 15 teams still playing in the NCAA tournament have an average of 2.93 such players.
“When we go around the locker room and we’re all sitting there waiting for coach and point around the room and go redshirt, redshirt, redshirt, redshirt, red- shirt, redshirt, it’s literally like you are the exception to the rule if you haven’t redshirted at some point,” said Travis Knight, Gonzaga’s strength and conditioning coach.
“It’s not looked at as, ‘ Hey, you failed to be out there as a freshman.’ It’s looked at as if you don’t redshirt, by all means do as much as you can, but if you do get an opportunity to redshirt, man, it will change everything for you.”
Nigel Williams- Goss, the Bulldogs’ All- American redshirt junior guard, recognized that quickly when he was entertaining suitors after deciding to transfer from Washington in 2015. Like almost all Division I transfers, he was going to have to sit out a season per NCAA rules, but the last thing he wanted to do was spend that time actually sitting.
“That was one of the biggest reasons why I came here, was because of the plan that they had in place for me,” Williams- Goss said. “It was already mapped out when I came on my visit as far as what we were going to do, things we were going to work on.” DRAW, NOT DETERRENT For players matriculating to Gonzaga directly from high school, the redshirt is an option, but it’s not a fit for every player. Current Bulldogs forward Zach Collins is the team’s most efficient player as a true freshman, and Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Domantas Sabonis played as a true freshman and sophomore from 2014 to 2016 before leaving for the NBA.
Yet Gonzaga has figured out how to turn the redshirt year into a recruiting tool. Player development is one of the program’s core pillars, and Knight presents redshirting as a problem- solving exercise that is different player to player and often day to day. The weight room isn’t a place to brag or turn into bodybuilders, but just one of dozens of tools for the players’ benefit.
“We literally try to not leave any stone unturned,” said Mark Few, Gonzaga’s head coach, “whether it’s nutrition or sleep or DNA predisposition to weights to speed, agility, flexibility, yoga.
“Capping out their potential has always been the goal. If you’re not getting the top five or 10 or 15 players in the country — which we don’t get coming out of high school — you focus on, ‘ Let’s get these other guys that we evaluate properly and know how hungry they are and their potential, and then let’s do it that way.’ ”
Matt Santangelo, who was part of a five- player redshirt class in 1995, remembers being told as a freshman, “You’re going to be better at the tail end of 22 than on the front of 18.”
“And that kind of made sense to me,” he said.
Santangelo and his fellow redshirts would grab then- graduate assistant coach Bill Grier to play 3- on- 3. Four years later, Santangelo earned honorable mention All- American honors on the Bulldogs’ 1999 Elite Eight team, and when he was a senior they made the Sweet 16.
Few reiterates that the process has evolved since Santangelo’s era, with Knight being one of the biggest differences and players such as Kelly Olynyk, Kyle Wiltjer and now Williams- Goss earning All- American honors in their first seasons post- redshirting.
“They now have multiple examples to say, ‘ Hey, our system works,’ ” Santangelo said. “Our system is working for whichever direction you’re coming from or going to.” WHY IT WORKS The notion that the best player on the roster could be unavailable for game competition might seem like a risk of the redshirting strategy, but it’s really the point.
“What’s made it work is we have a culture of ownership and responsibility,” assistant coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Those guys know they’re redshirting for a reason, and I always tell them the redshirt needs to be your ‘ because’ year. Because you redshirted, you were able to do this. It’s not a wasted year. Your mind- set needs to be at the end of your career, because you redshirted, you were able to do this, this and that.”
Because Norvell redshirted, he has a plan for every move and shot, he is learning to play at a faster tempo and, due to the use of strobe goggles with Knight, is learning to trust his instincts as a player.
Because Larsen redshirted, the 7- foot native of Denmark has been able to add 20 pounds of upper body muscle to complement his ultra- cerebral, European playing style. “He’s a guy who walks around quoting Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Knight said. “Everybody who comes in contact with him just marvels at how he’s transformed his body and calls him The Machine.”
As Division I transfers, Johnathan Williams and Williams-Goss’ redshirt years were mandatory, but because of them Williams learned to get more arc on his shot, use the backboard on hook shots and actually show he could use his right hand. “I was so left- hand dominant in my two years at Missouri, you probably thought I’d cut my right hand off,” he said.
The focus for Williams- Goss was almost all mental, specifically recognizing and manipulating floor spacing to his advantage. He embraced the work, especially because he couldn’t imagine how much he could improve if he had an entire year to study and work on his game.
The days when Gonzaga is playing are the days the redshirts have their hardest workouts, a combination of weight room training and on- court training in an empty gym.
“I feel like if you take advantage of it or you make the most out of it,” Norvell said, “nothing but good will come out of it.”