Through Oct. 31, Sports Illustrated will count down its preseason college basketball Top 25 with overviews of each team. Here are the full rankings so far.
If you believe the analytics, Gonzaga was a top-10 team last season that ran into miserable luck. The Bulldogs dropped a number of close games early, which left them stuck as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA tournament and matched them up with an elite Houston squad in the second round. From an eye-test standpoint, the truth feels a bit more murky: The Bulldogs still had the juice to beat the brakes off good teams on their best nights, but on their worst showed cracks in the armor (especially defensively) that we haven’t seen in quite a while in Spokane.
Up front, the 2025–26 Zags look strong. Graham Ike is back for a third year with the program. He has proven himself to be one of the most effective low-post threats in the sport. He could contend for All-American honors. And few bigs are more productive on a per-minute basis than Braden Huff, who averaged 11 points in under 17 minutes per game as a sophomore. Expect a bigger role for him with Ben Gregg graduating.
Around those two potential stars are plenty of new faces. Can Mark Few push the right buttons and get this program back in the Final Four mix?
Projected Starting Lineup
PG: Mario Saint-Supery
SG: Adam Miller
SF: Tyon Grant-Foster (with waiver)
PF: Braden Huff
C: Graham Ike
Key Reserves: PG Braeden Smith, W Jalen Warley, C Ismaila Diagne
Key Additions
If Gonzaga ends up in the thick of title contention this season, it’ll likely have a lot to do with Spanish sensation Mario Saint-Supery. He’s the type of player we almost never saw in college basketball pre-NIL, having played a key role in the Spanish ACB as an 18-year-old with Manresa. The Bulldogs have a couple other ballhandling options in Colgate transfer Braeden Smith (who redshirted in 2024–25) and former Florida State guard Jalen Warley, but the highest-ceiling option is definitely Saint-Supery. He has the speed, creativity and shotmaking ability to be one of the best guards in the country in time, but the adjustment to college can be significant especially from a physicality standpoint.
19-Year-Old Gonzaga phenom Mario Saint-Supéry (@M_SaintSupery) was OUTSTANDING for Spain’s 🇪🇸Senior National Team in the 2025 EuroBasket
— Hoops HQ (@hhqsports) September 19, 2025
Averages:
16.9 Minutes
8.4 Points (33.3% 3PT | 91.7% FT) (3rd)
2.8 Assists (2nd)
1.4 Rebounds
1.0 Steals (2nd)
9.0 Efficiency (3rd) @ZagMBB pic.twitter.com/dvistjIMSR
Tyon Grant-Foster is awaiting NCAA clearance as the 25-year-old looks for an extension of his eligibility clock after missing two full seasons due to a heart condition. If cleared, he provides a significant boost to a wing corps that look somewhat underwhelming … especially if he returns to the form of his 2023–24 WAC Player of the Year campaign at Grand Canyon. Without him, expect to see more of Warley on the wing as well as shooters Adam Miller (Arizona State) and Steele Venters, who has missed the last two years with devastating injuries.
Causes for Concern
Defense could be a problem with an Ike/Huff starting frontcourt, especially if paired with smaller guards like Smith and/or Saint-Supery. The Zags turned it on defensively last season down the stretch, but were barely a top-50 defense through Feb. 1 after ranking outside the top 50 the previous two seasons. Marks like that pretty significantly lower the ceiling, especially without the proven elite point guard play that Ryan Nembhard brought to the table. Saint-Supery is electric with the ball in his hands and could well make this ranking look foolishly low, but I’d bet it takes time for him to really settle in and the Zags feel some early growing pains.
The Bottom Line
This ranking would represent a step back for Gonzaga after a ridiculous 10 straight seasons in the top 12 of KenPom, though the Zags’ numbers are often juiced by their utter domination of WCC foes. That said, there’s too much backcourt uncertainty to feel confident putting this team among the top-tier title contenders. We should learn a lot early with matchups against Oklahoma, Creighton, Arizona State, Alabama and Maryland all before Thanksgiving Day.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sports Illustrated’s Men’s College Basketball Preseason Top 25: No. 24 Gonzaga.
