CRUCIAL: Massamba Diop will visit Gonzaga this weekend, Mark Few MUST secure commitment from big man!

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Missamba Diop is coming to Spokane and Mark few must not let him leave before he commits

to the Zags.

You are Lockdown Zags, your daily podcast on the Gonzaga Bulldogs, part of the Lockdown

podcast network, your team every day.

What is going on?

Welcome into the Lockdown Zags podcast.

I'm your host and longtime Gonzaga podcast or Andy Patton.

We got a lot to cover today, most notably, of course, Missamba Diop, the seven foot one

big man from Arizona State is visiting Gonzaga this weekend.

We're going to talk about who he is, why he is the perfect fit next to Brayden Huff

in Gonzaga Front Court.

Who Gonzaga is competing against to land his services next year, all of that to begin

the show.

We're also going to talk about a three point specialist that Gonzaga has contacted in the

transfer portal who's got some local ties who might be a nice fit as a bench piece for

the Zags.

Then we're going to close out the show talking about a couple of departed Zags.

Steel Ventors has found his new home in the state of Washington.

Brayden Smith follows suit and join him with the Huskies.

We'll talk about that in a few other players who have yet to commit out of the transfer

portal from Gonzaga's roster this past year.

But of course, we're starting with the news that came through on Thursday evening that

Missamba Diop is officially going to visit Spokane and Gonzaga this weekend.

It sounds like the visit is starting on Saturday afternoon and we'll run through Sunday.

And folks, Gonzaga's got to make sure that they get him in writing that he is coming

to Gonzaga next year.

They need to secure this because he is also after this visit, said to go to New York,

to Queens, to go visit Rick Batino and St. John's and it sounds like those are the top two

schools.

In fact, about a week ago that it was pretty much confirmed that he was zeroing in on

those two schools.

This is the first known visit for Diop at this point is to Spokane and Gonzaga.

If he leaves without committing and he goes on his visit to St. John's, you're going to

feel a lot more nervous about whether that means he's going to end up in Spokane or

not.

Gonzaga's, or say, John's also taking a look at Cincinnati Big Man Mustafa Theom.

Gonzaga has been connected to him as well.

I imagine that is the direction they would pivot.

Should they not land Missamba Diop as they try to go after Theom from Cincinnati and

Ajay Hines was on their list as well, but he has already committed to Yukon.

So they got a lot of eggs in this Missamba Diop basket and for good reason.

He's a seven foot one rising sophomore from Senegal.

He played at Real Madrid internationally.

He was teammates with Gonzaga Center Ismael Adiani.

And then apparently Diani was a big help for him kind of learning the language and getting

used to it because he didn't join the team until halfway into the season.

So he's got a close relationship with Ismael Adiani, who is in the transfer portal.

But I imagine that connection will still help Diani is still a student at Gonzaga right

now and so will still be on campus with Diop when he gets here on Saturday.

So that is certainly going to help as well.

Diop entered the portal after a phenomenal freshman year at Arizona State.

He was old for a freshman.

He turned 21 during his freshman year.

So he's going to turn 22 as a sophomore this upcoming season.

So we talked about the youth movement on Thursday's show and we talked about Gonzaga's

pursuit of some of the players in the portal, you know, after already landing.

I say, oh, well, like, oh, this team's trying to get younger.

That's true, but Diop is not your typical sophomore in the sense that he has already

the age of many seniors or at least juniors.

And he's only going to be a sophomore this upcoming season.

Not hard to see why Gonzaga is interested in Diop.

He is a tremendously talented player last year, again, as a freshman.

An older freshman of playing his first year of college basketball.

Diop started all 33 games for Arizona State then coached by Bobby Hurley.

He averaged about 30 minutes per game, 13 and a half points, little under six rebounds

and about two blocks per game.

He shot just under 60% on two pointers and that was on over eight attempts per game.

Again, true freshman in the big 12, shooting 60% on eight two point attempts per game.

This dude dominated down around the rim.

He also shot 31% from three.

Now it was a small volume.

He was eight of 26 and 31% is not great, but it's also not terrible for a big man.

Who has the size and skill that Diop has to be able to at least

capably space the floor, at least show that ability to the point where defenders have to.

They got to keep you honest.

They got to come out there on him.

That's going to help a ton as well.

He also shot about 72% from the free throw line on four and a half attempts per game.

Gonzaga did play, did face Diop when they went down to Tempe.

It was the third game of Diop's collegiate career.

He had 11 points against Gonzaga in that game.

Four rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

He shot four of 10 from the field.

One of the big things about Diop though is that he got better as the season went on.

He had an eight game stretch kind of in the end of non-con, the start of big 12 play.

During that eight game stretch, he averaged 18.6 and a half boards and two and a half blocks

per game while shooting over 71% on two pointers.

A couple other notable games for him.

He had 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in a win over Kansas.

He had Florey Badunga widely considered the best transfer available in the portal before

he landed at Louisville.

He also had 17 points, seven rebounds and three blocks against Oklahoma State.

Now again, we said it already Diop, the main competition for Diop for Gonzaga is St.

John's, Rick Patino and the Johnny's lose, Zubi E.G.

Four was one of the best players in the country last year.

They're starting center somewhat ironically a transfer from Kansas as well.

Rick Patino and Mark Fu kind of used their bigs similarly.

It's not a surprise to see that these two teams being in the mix here for both Diop and

for Diom as well because they're high usage roles.

They get a lot of versatility defensively and offensively.

They get showcased a ton so makes sense to see them involved here because that is going

to have some competition from St. John's.

It's critical that they got the first visit because you get to make that first impression

and you get to try to convince a kid, hey, there's no need.

You don't have to keep doing this.

You can be done.

You can just commit here.

Sign on the dotted line will be good.

We'll get you ready to roll and this whole process can be done.

If Gonzaga can secure that, the odds of obviously the odds go up to 100%, but if he leaves, the

odds drop dramatically.

I don't think it's over.

A lot of people have said on social media like, oh, if he doesn't commit the second he

walks out the door, he's going to St. John's.

It's over.

I would think the odds would be not great for Gonzaga, but frankly, Ryan Nemhart came to

Gonzaga, visited, then went to Arizona and everybody said, oh, there's no way he's coming

to Gonzaga.

And then he did.

And it has happened before, but if you're Gonzaga, if you're Mark Fu and the coaching staff

here, you want this announcement on Sunday night that, hey, somebody office committed, he's

coming here.

He's going to start in this starting line up because he is a beautiful, beautiful fit

in this front court alongside Bradenoth.

It's hard to imagine a player who is a better fit in terms of their strengths, matching

huts, weaknesses and vice versa.

Obviously, there are some players who just seem to be have no weaknesses.

That homegrown would fit next to any big that has ever played at Gonzaga because he does

not really have any weaknesses.

Florey Bedouinga, who is the best player in the transfer portal.

He's not perfect.

He's not a floor spacer necessarily, but he would fit well because he would fit well

basically anywhere as well.

Diop is also very versatile, very talented and would fit in the vast majority of systems,

but it is really striking how good of a fit he will be in Spokane should he commit to

the Bulldogs.

He's seven foot one.

He's 240 pounds.

And again, he's going to turn 22.

He's big, strong, physical.

He is a five.

There's no mystery if Missama Diop commits to your program that Bradenhuff, is he a four

or five?

He's a four if Missama Diop is here because that he's playing the five.

Same with Tion, same with the other guys they're pursuing.

They're clearly looking at putting Huff at the four next year and Diop would allow them

to do that.

It gives them a front court that involves Missama Diop, Bradenhuff, incoming freshmen, Sam

Funches, as well as Redshire, freshman, Parker, Jefferson.

That is a quality front court.

It allows Davis Fogo to slide down to play the three, which is what he did most of last

year, but there was times when he played the four with Huff and for a while, Braden,

Gram E.K.

Both injured.

Jalen Worley obviously dealing with the quad contusion limited his minutes down the

stretch last year as well.

So Fogo gets to focus on the three.

You got a six foot seven three, a six foot ten four, a seven foot one five.

You are a big, big team.

You bet, Mark, you watched what his buddy Tommy Lloyd did.

He bet he watched what Michigan did, not only against him, but running all the way to

the national championship.

And he thought we need some size, dang it.

And Missama Diop is the guy to bring in to give you that size, to boost up your size

at the four and the three as well.

Diop scores really well around the rim.

He's got soft touch at the cup.

He sets good screens.

He's a good rim runner.

He draws a lot of contact.

Again, his 103 made free throws last year at Arizona State would have been second on

Gonzaga behind Gram E.K., who made 118.

Like I said, Diop's not a great three point shooter, but he's at least adequate enough that

he can pull defense away from Huff.

Now where you want to see Diop, where you want to confirmation for him is, can he be

the big who gets the ball at the top of the key and looks to make that entry pass to

Braden Huff?

Because being able to make that pass is crucial in this offense.

If he cannot, that is going to be a challenge that Gonzaga is going to have to work through

and figure out like how, how are we going to make this work?

Is it just always huff dumping to Diop?

You don't like that because Huff's such a good score.

Do you run more pick and roll and get Huff in the short roll?

There's a lot of things they can do around that.

But if Diop can make that pass, he can get that ball to the top of the key, turn square,

and either shoot, dribble or pass, that's huge, huge, huge, huge for Gonzaga.

But it's not Diop's offense that is the main catalyst for why this is such a good fit.

Missama Diop is a phenomenal defensive player and he is the rim protector that this program

desperately with a capital D needs.

Last year Diop blocked 69 shots in the big 12 as a first year collegiate player.

Because leader in block shots last year was tie and grab foster at 38.

So Diop had more than 30 additional blocks than what Grant Foster put up as Gonzaga's leader

last year.

Now, the crazy thing about that is tie and grab foster is not only Gonzaga's leader last

year, he is their leader since Chet Homgren was in Spokane back in 2022.

Chet of course tied Brandon Clark's record for blocks in a single season with a staggering

117 blocks for Brandon Clark and Chet Homgren.

Their tie to number one, number two, is Austin Day in the 2009 season.

He had 70.

Number four, I guess if you count the top two, as two, then you have three of per day,

four is Zach Collins, who had 69 blocks.

So Missama Diop, as a freshman in the big 12, would have had the fourth most blocks in

a single season in Gonzaga's history.

Last year, Grant Foster was a leader at 38.

The year before that, Grammy K was the leader at 22.

Diop had three times as many blocks as Gonzaga's leader in the 24, 25 season in the year before

that.

It was a tie between Bradenhof and Ben Gregg at 24.

The year before that, it was Drutemi at 36.

This highlights how little rim protection Gonzaga has truly and blocks are not the only

measure of rim protection.

But let's be honest, Gonzaga's rim protection was flat out bad the last half decade.

It's not like they had a guy down there altering a bunch of shots.

He just wasn't actually getting credited for blocks.

They were not altering nearly enough shots at the rim.

Diop fixes that problem and then some.

He also has solid lateral mobility.

He's good enough to hedge on screens.

He can recover quickly.

He's going to alter shots at the rim.

I mean, again, he's tailor made to play in Gonzaga system.

If you built a big man in a lab that you wanted to play for Mark Fu, specifically to play

alongside Bradenhof, this is the player that you would build.

If Gonzaga can land that commitment on Sunday, it puts them much, much more in the conversation

as a legitimate championship contender in their first year in the Pac-12 in the 26, 27 season.

What else they'll need is a shooter, at least one shooter because Isaiah Harwell is not

that three point specialist.

Diop if he commits is not that three point specialist, they're going to need to find somebody who

can light it up from beyond the arc.

They got their eye on a player with some local ties who could be that perfect pick.

We're going to talk about him coming up here in just a second.

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Go folks, we're going to have more about Massama Diop.

We're going to talk about how this visit goes.

Hopefully, hopefully the mailbag or the Monday episode of Lockdown Zags instead of being

a mailbag will be a commitment episode about the big man will get even more in depth

into what he would bring to Spokane.

And for right now, we're going to focus on another player that was connected to Gonzaga

on Thursday.

There's always a handful of tweets posed by various people, various newsbreakers that kind

of say, hey, here's a list of schools that this player has heard from.

And Gonzaga's name will often pop up on those lists.

And it's important to acknowledge that the breadth or depth of Gonzaga's interest in these

players is not clear.

A player might say, hey, or an agent might say, hey, these are the 10 schools that have contacted

this player.

The contact might be from a very casual source of just like, hey, just kind of checking

in.

Might be a third, fourth assistant just, you know, ringing a guy out of a favor to an agent

or something like that, where some of the interest might be like really significant.

And it's, you don't always know, you don't know where those sources are coming from.

You don't know if an agent's just trying to, you know, gas up his player a little bit

by putting schools on the list that maybe aren't super interested.

And I'm not saying that's the case here.

I'm just saying that we have to look at those various situations with a little bit of

a grain of salt.

So the player we're going to talk about here, Gonzaga was connected in the sense that it's

the same thing.

It was a report from Deshaum London.

It works at 247 Sports who said, hey, Ethan Copeland has heard from the following schools

in the Transreportal.

And it was, there was Gonzaga was on the list.

I think LMU was on the list, high point, Boise State, I believe was the other one on

the list.

So Gonzaga was kind of the most notable program on that list.

And he was a six foot two guard from Stetson, which plays all the way out in the Atlantic

Sun Conference.

And I thought, I'm kind of wonder what the connection is here.

Looked up Ethan Copeland, he is from Washington.

He's from sunny side Washington, which is a little under 200 miles away from Spokane.

So certainly the local connection does make a little bit more sense here.

Copeland again grew up in sunny side, played high school in Utah, though.

He went to Lone Peak High School, which is a big time basketball school in the state

of Utah.

From there, went to the community college route and played two years at Salt Lake City Community

College, played there for two years, got his associates degree and then transferred

to Stetson.

So again, long move for Copeland all the way out to Stetson to play for the Hatters.

And in his first year of vision, one basketball, he was flat out really, really good.

And I think that's why you're starting to see this real attention show.

I'm like, oh, this is maybe a late bloomer and a kid who does what Gonzaga needs out of

somebody on this roster next year.

He lights it up from beyond the art.

In his first year of D1 ball at the Hatters, Copeland played 33 games, played about 32 minutes

per game, average 15 points, little under four boards, two assists, and one and a half

steals per game.

He shot 43% from three.

And this was on a very high volume, nearly eight three point attempts per game.

And Copeland shoots 43%.

That is lethal.

That is really big time numbers from the perimeter.

He did not score in a ton of other ways.

I mean, 46 and a half percent on two pointers, which is fine, but at less than four attempts

per game, shot about 80% from the free throw line, but less than two attempts per game, because

my man was not getting to the cup.

He was standing around the perimeter and jacking up threes and knocking him down at a super,

super high clip.

Copeland had nine games of 20 or more points.

He scored in double figures in 26 of the 33 games that he played last year.

Now I think one question we would have here for Copeland, didn't see him against super

high level competition, Stetson's non-conference schedule included a road game against Miami.

They also played Oklahoma.

They played South Carolina.

They did play Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon was the worst performance of Copeland season for Stetson.

He was okay against Miami, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

I think he scored in double figures in all three of those games, but his efficiency

was not great.

He was 27 from three against Miami in that one.

I think he was two or four from three against South Carolina.

Performances were okay, but most of his damage, his highest scoring game was against the

non-D1 opponent.

Most of his 20 point games came against teams that were not particularly good.

He did face a couple of consistent opponents that Gonzaga also played, including Southern

Utah and North Florida.

Two teams that Gonzaga beat the absolute tar out of last year.

He had great performances there, but it's like, okay, well, how much do we want to put

stock into that considering that those teams were not remotely competitive against Gonzaga

last year?

Still, Evan Miyakawa, who does a phenomenal job with his website, EvanMia.com.

They track individual performances, and they give you a Bayesian performance rating.

It puts you in a percentile and various different skill sets.

It's based on your competition level.

It's based on your minutes per game.

It's based on a lot of different things.

Obviously, it's not bulletproof, but it does give you a good indication to be able to compare

how a player who played six minutes per game at a power conference school versus a player

who scored 15 points a game at a very small school, like it tries to give you the best

comparison of how we expect that player would do in different circumstances.

The data is pretty positive for Ethan Copeland.

He's the 260 first ranked player in the transfer portal.

That's out of over 2,000 players.

His overall rating or percentile is in the 86th percentile, according to EvanMia.

3-point shooting is in the 96th percentile, truly one of the best projected 3-point shooters

in the country.

His steals, again, one and a half steals per game, so he did show some defense there, is

in the 90th percentile, pre-throws 85th, playmaking, 85th, as well.

So yeah, I mean, we're talking about a guy who, do I think Ethan Copeland, if Gonzaga were

to significantly pursue him or land him, would be competing against Jack Cahill and Isaiah

Harwell to start?

No, not necessarily.

He's 6-2.

He's smaller than Mario St. Superior, who's 6-3, smaller than Kale, who's 6-5, then Harwell

who's 6-6.

Like, I think he would be competing to play a backup 2-guard role effectively.

He'd probably be your fourth guard.

It would be Mario Kale, Harwell, with Copeland kind of in that fourth guard role.

He could probably play point guard in a pinch, but I think ultimately Mario's your starting

point guard, Kale's your backup point guard, Copeland's kind of your third string point

guard, and you're really your third string shooting guard, as well, because it's probably

Kale, Harwell, and then Copeland in some order there.

But I think if you're looking at him as your ninth man, which for Gonzaga has historically

been a consistent role, but not a big role, just say, hey, you're playing most games.

Maybe you're playing 30 of the games this year, and you play 8 to 10 minutes per game.

And his role is to just space the floor and knock down open shots.

I think you like that.

I think that feels pretty good.

If you can get him to commit to that.

Now, if he wants to go to a Boise State or LMU where they're going to give him more playing

time or give him the basketball and let him run the point, that's going to be a tough

sell.

Now, Gonzaga could probably outbid those teams even if they're only paying Copeland

to be their ninth guy.

But this is the kind of addition I expect to happen.

Whether it's Ethan Copeland, whether it's TJ Birch, who they're connected to, Talon Petway,

who they're connected to Mason Williams, who we spoke about earlier this week, Mason Williams

is probably a little bit on the higher end in terms of what that kind of addition might

look like.

Gavin Sykes is probably the most exciting guard they're currently connected to in the sense

that he averaged 19 and a half points per game last year in the big west.

But those guys are, even still, most of those guys are going to be not necessarily guaranteed

starters because of Harwell, because of Jack Hale and what he might be able to bring as

a 20 year old next year coming over from Germany.

So to me, you're looking more at a specialist, you're looking more at a reserve player who needs

to have a defined role on this roster.

And considering how bad this team was, it's shooting from three last year, considering

how they have not addressed three point shooting this year.

Luke of Foster is a freshman coming in who, by all accounts, they're a good three point

shooter, but I don't know that he's going to be a major consistent player.

Isaiah Harwell shot 27% from three last year.

If they land the up, that's not what he's bringing to the team either.

So you need to find three, even if Kay Hill ends up being a big time three point shooter,

even if Fogo improves as a three point shooter, even if Foster plays, you still need more.

Like you still, it was such a problem area for Gonzaga last year that you still need to

find more of it.

Copeland made 109 threes last year.

Obviously not going to shoot or make that many at Gonzaga, but he made 109 threes.

Gonzaga's leader and three pointers made last year was Mario at 48.

Like that's a massive difference.

And Copeland shot about as same efficiency as Mario on twice as many makes.

This dude is a flame thrower.

And if he's willing to come to Gonzaga for a smaller role, where he's going to get mostly

wide open looks from three instead of having to create his own offense like he did for

the hatters, this guy could shoot 50% from three like this could be a Malachi Smith caliber

edition.

I use that comparison recently and I want to use it again because I think it's apt for

players like this.

Malachi Smith shot 40 plus percent from three, both at Chattanooga and at Wright State.

And he was like the guy.

He was averaging 20 points a game.

He was the best player on those teams.

He comes to Gonzaga.

He comes off the bench and he makes 50% of his threes because he was open way more because

he had Julian Strathler and drew Timmy and all those guys as teammates.

So I could see.

I don't know that Copeland would play quite as many minutes as Malachi did, but maybe

he would.

And even if he doesn't, he could shoot 50% from three and provide desperately needed

perimeter scoring for Gonzaga on this roster next season.

Well folks, speaking of three point shooting, Steel Ventors has landed at his third different

school in the state of Washington.

We're going to discuss his fit at UW and whether or another former Zach and Seattle native

in Braden Smith will join him all of that coming up here in just a second.

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All right, folks, segment three, still any patent, still locked on Zack's podcast.

And we are closing out the show.

Instead of talking about potential transfers coming in, two spoke camera,

we're going to talk about a couple transfers heading out.

And Zack has had six players enter the transfer portal from the men seen this past season.

He made you want to Chente was the first player to officially commit somewhere.

He has landed to play for Randy Bennett at Arizona State.

And then you have steel ventures.

We're going to talk about him committing to Washington, Braden Smith, also in the portal,

as well as a Smilodiani and a pair of walk-ons, Joaquina Reyes Moore, and Cade Orness.

We'll start with ventures here.

Ventures, of course, six foot seven wing, began his college career at Eastern Washington.

Way back in the 2019-20 season, that was the year before the COVID season.

He redshirted that year, played for Eastern in the COVID year,

played two more great seasons at Eastern one big sky player of the year,

transferred to Gonzaga, and then missed two full seasons.

First with the ACL injury that he suffered two days before the season began in the 23-24 season.

The next year, while rehabbing from that ACL injury, he suffered in Achilles injury,

the cost of all of the 24-25 season comes back, still manages to return after both of those injuries.

Two season ending injuries comes back, plays for Gonzaga last year, played 27 games,

started 10 of them, average about five points per game shot, 37% from three.

We saw ventures playing time decline as the season went on to the point where he was picking up the NPs

towards the end of the year.

His defense was just not what Gonzaga needed out of him in the three-point shooting,

kind of dipped when Huff went down with the injury.

Gonzaga needed to rely a little bit more on EK teams where the offense wasn't as conducive to

steel being on the floor, pulling gravity away from the bigs and shooting threes.

He just wasn't making threes as consistently in the second half of the season,

and because his defense was a liability, he ended up falling out of the rotation.

It was a sad end to what was one of the biggest what ifs in Gonzaga basketball history,

had he been able to stay healthy, what would that have looked like?

Dusty Stromer wouldn't have been thrust into the starting lineup as a freshman.

Maybe his development goes differently.

He Gonzaga probably doesn't even go get a manual in a Chente in the transfer portal.

What does that mean for them following year?

Do they ever go get an atom mill or out of the portal as well?

So many things would have changed, had steel ventures stayed healthy.

But unfortunately, he did not.

I am so happy that he got healthy, and he got an opportunity to play for Gonzaga this last

year.

And I hope that things work out for him at Washington.

UW was not a good three-point shooting team last year.

They have a ton of holes on their roster.

Zoom the LL leaves.

He goes to Kentucky.

JJ Mandakit, their backup point guard leaves.

He goes to Arizona.

Courtney Mildrew is in the transfer portal as well.

This is a team that needed more bodies.

They needed more shooting and spacing.

And so they went out and got a guy in steel ventures who heads across the state to play

the farthest away from home that he has been playing for Seattle.

Again, he's now at his third different school in the state of Washington for his end of

his career.

He's also going to need a waiver.

This will be his eight-year of college basketball, eight-year in college, I should say.

He should, in theory, get the waiver.

He played two years at Eastern Washington one year at Gonzaga.

The other year he played at Eastern was during the COVID year.

That shouldn't count against him.

He registered his first year and then he missed two years with injury.

In theory, he should have another year.

The NCAA does not like giving players more than five years.

It's going to be a fight.

I'm a little surprised that UW was willing to take this on knowing the battle that they're

going to have with the NCAA.

I'm curious to see how this plays out for them and for ventures.

I hope that he can play and I hope that he plays well for UW next year.

I think there's a reasonable chance to have a familiar face on that roster in Braden Smith.

Braden Smith, from Seattle, played at Seattle Prep High School before going out to Colgate

for the first two years of his career, he was in Seattle visiting.

Not just visiting like family, although I'm sure he did that too, but visiting UW specifically

on campus, checking it out, getting the deal from the coaching staff probably got an offer

there, at least some level of discussion about what his role might look like.

Again, I mentioned those guards.

Diallo had the ball in his hands a ton, Mandicate had the ball in his hands a ton.

Mulder was considered to eight point guards for them.

Ventures is going to fill a role on the wing.

They need point guards.

They need an initiator and that's why they're looking at Braden Smith and his connection

to Seattle.

This makes a ton of sense.

I will say, after Smith's visit was over, sounds like Ryan Beasley.

My foot 11 point guard from San Francisco, a guy that Gonzaga fans were very familiar with,

he also went and visited Seattle.

That seems to indicate to me that maybe Seattle Washington at the very least was not dead

set on Braden Smith.

I imagine that if they made him an offer, that he would have accepted it.

Obviously, it's possible that he's like, let me think about it or whatever, but the fact

that Washington pivoted to Ryan Beasley, who is probably a better player.

It does depend what they need in certain situations.

I think that's maybe not a great sign for Smith ending up joining ventures at Washington

or not.

Beasley is a better three point shooter, which I know something UW is focused on.

I think more than that, while I don't know that Smith's not a bad player and I don't

know that him and Beasley are actually that far apart from each other, Beasley comes

from a system that plays at a pace much similar.

Francisco system is very similar in terms of pace to what Washington does, whereas

Gonzaga is not.

And Smith in particular, he pushed the pace.

He pushed the tempo.

That's what he wanted to do.

I am curious what his fit would look like in a slower paced system.

It might be better.

I'm not saying that it's going to be worse, but he's not capable of doing it.

It is just going to be an adjustment from what he did this past season, whereas that's

not as much the case for Ryan Beasley.

So it'll be an interesting one to track here.

It would be kind of fun to see both Ventors and Smith playing together in Seattle with

Washington next year.

I should Smith not end up going to UW.

I'm curious.

Illinois, I know that they are a very, very good team and returned most of their talent

from last year, but they could use a backup point guard and their head assistant coach

was an assistant coach at Colgate, when Smith was there.

So that makes a little bit of sense to me.

I'm curious if Oregon would take a look at Smith as well.

Or if he wants to play closer to home, Seattle, you would love to have him.

I just don't know if that's going to work for Smith, but man, oh, man, I think that would

be a good fit for him as well.

So Ventors is now at Washington.

Inichente is now at Arizona State.

Smith might be joining Ventors at Washington as well.

What about the other guys for Gonzaga?

It's my LaDiana is next.

It's my LaDiana.

We talked about him a little bit earlier this week.

We talked about him in or nest earlier this week.

I'm really interested in if Santa Clara will give us my LaDiana look.

I mentioned it that earlier this week, because Alan Graves had it into the transfer portal

when I said, well, Boogie Boie has not ended the portal.

And he's a seven foot one foul prone big man who doesn't space the floor like I don't think

they want two of those in a boy and is my LaDiana.

But then Boogie Boie ended the transfer portal.

And reportedly he or I don't even know if it's reported.

I think it's confirmed he's going to Auburn, which is an interesting fit.

I'm excited to see how that plays out for him.

I think he's going to spend a lot of time on the bench and foul trouble, but maybe he'll

be able to make a bigger impact for Stephen Pearl and the Tigers.

But now Herb Sendeck and Santa Clara don't have either a Boie or Alan Graves.

Dianne had the best game of his career against Santa Clara.

Herb Sendeck watched that and probably watched it again and probably watched it again

and might be like, hey, if we can get this version of Dianne, this might make a lot of sense

for us.

That's a team I'm keeping an eye on.

200 teams we've already talked about today, Seattle U and San Francisco.

I think it makes sense.

They both have historically recruited international players very well.

Seattle U lost their starting center.

The Brockfelder, Austin Mauer and Hurondan were their three seven footers last year.

All three of them are in the transfer portal.

They love bigs.

They love big, bigs.

I could see Dianne fitting in nicely at Seattle U. San Francisco, a lot of the same things

there.

I could see him fitting in there as well.

So those are some schools.

I have my eye on for Dianne.

And for Orness and Joaquina Reyes more, mostly I'm just curious if they're going to end

up playing Division 1 basketball next year.

He went on Lemke went to Belmont last year before that Colby Brooks went to San Diego.

Two of the last walk-ons to transfer from Gonzaga did end up playing Division 1 basketball.

Will Orness go walk on to go play at Seattle U where he's from, he's from the Kitsap area,

just west of Seattle.

Will Queue, he's from San Francisco area again.

Will he go to a school like USF or will these guys go D2?

Will you go to Puget Sound or some Cal State Monterey Bay where I think you could absolutely

cook people if you were to go somewhere like that or Sonoma State or something of that

nature.

I'm just interested to see where these guys go.

It's hard to make predictions.

It could be any number of things.

It depends what they want.

It depends, you know, kind of what their goals are, but it's fun to see where these guys

end up playing.

And so I'm curious to see how this plays out for them.

It's going to wrap it up for me today.

And for this week here, thank you so much.

Those of you who made this show your first listener watch of the day, special shout out

to you everyday listeners as well.

We'll be back on Monday.

Hopefully it's a commitment episode about Mesoma Diop, if not, we'll continue to talk

about his recruitment and Gonzaga search for their next starting center where they would

pivot if it is not Diop, all of that and more coming your way next week.

Thanks again, folks.

Have a fantastic rest of your day and weekend.

And of course, as always, go zags.

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