LIMBO: Gonzaga's season hangs in the balance as 5(!) Bulldogs remain in NCAA eligibility limbo!

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1:03needing answers for Mark Fuse team. You are Lockdownsags, your daily podcast on the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. What is going on? Welcome into Lockdownsags podcast. It's all part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day. I'm your host and longtime Gonzaga podcast or Andy Patton. Today's episode is brought to you by Square. Right now you can get up to $200 off Square Hardware at square.com slash go slash NBA. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. Well the season folks, it's almost here. Seven weeks from today, as I'm recording this on Monday, September 7th, we got not a lot of time until basketball is back. Crazeness in the kennel about three weeks away. And there's still a lot of questions to answer about this team questions that the coaching staff and that the players will answer during the season questions that the NCAA has to

2:05answer many of them on that regard. It is the most uncertain we have ever felt about a Gonzaga roster at this point in the offseason ever. I can say that definitively in what has been a wild and goofy and crazy off season for a variety of reasons, not all related to the NCAA in five and five lawsuits. We can thank Mario, St. Superior and Jack K. Hill and many others for what has been a unique off season. But what we're going to do today is we're going to talk about six of the biggest questions to and each segment around this team coming into the season. Some questions that will be answered in the coming weeks. Some that won't be answered until the games get underway in November, starting with that game against Purdue on November 2nd at the team of Alrina in Las Vegas. So we'll talk some eligibility. We'll talk some talk about the freshman class. Talk about some of the returning players. I will talk about the pack 12, which is of course a new element to all of this as well. We'll start here with what is the biggest most obvious glaring question around Gonzaga basketball right now and unfortunately the one with far and away the merkeest answer

3:08at this point. And that is will this five and five class get eligible, the seniors who graduated or who finished their four years of eligibility in 2026, all members of the high school class of 2022 have been pursuing a fifth year of eligibility after the NCAA released a rule in June of this year that goes into effect immediately that states that all student athletes will have five years to compete five seasons of eligibility. So you are allowed five years from the day you graduate high school or for international players after your 19th birthday. And because they put that rule into effect in June or July, they thought, well, the class that just finished up their school, they are done, they finished their four years, they're not going to count. And that class said, the heck, this is life changing amounts of money that is now being thrown around in college basketball and college football and to arbitrarily exclude us from this ruling when it's going to go into effect after this for every other class is BS and we want our

4:10cut and we want our share and we want our opportunity to compete for a fifth year. Those lawsuits have been ongoing, there have been lawsuits filed in many, many different states across the country. I mean, at least 15 of them at this point have been filed. There was also the federal lawsuit filed in Colorado as well. And it has created a completely confusing and messy eligibility situation for this group of players. And because Gonzaga's off season went the way that it did because we had the late departure of not only Jack K. Hill, but then Mario St. Superior because we had two international players who are still in eligibility limbo more on that in a second. Gonzaga had the opportunity to capitalize on this class of 2022 and they did. They went out and got a commitment from Dayton Transfer Point Guard, Javon Bennett, Florida State Transfer Wing at Choncy Wiggins and then of course the big fish Florida Transfer Guard, Xavier Unle. And right now two of those three players are eligible to play for the Gonzaga Bulldogs. That would be Choncy Wiggins and Xavier Unle.

5:12It's not explicitly clear whether they're on campus, what their situation is, their grad students, they're not undergrad students. So it does affect the academic calendar a little bit more in that regard. But they are currently eligible and Wiggins, Agas on the floor practicing. They are assuming they get all their paperwork and their NLI not NIL. Their NLI forums signed. They would be able to practice and participate with this team. Javon Bennett is not. Javon Bennett was granted eligibility from the first lawsuit that was ruled on in this out of all of these lawsuits. And that was in the state of Ohio. He was also of course granted eligibility from the federal lawsuit in Colorado. But both of those lawsuits have been stayed by the NCAA, meaning that until the appeal is heard, the ruling by the judge, the TRO or the injunction does not go into effect. So the NCAA is in the appeals process for both those lawsuits. It is possible that appeal gets denied in which case Bennett would become eligible. But it's not clear if that is going to happen.

6:14It is also possible and I dare I say likely that the NCAA will get stay request granted in the Georgia and California lawsuits. The Georgia lawsuit is how Chancé Wiggins is eligible. The California lawsuit is how Xavier and Lee is eligible. They have applied for stay request in both those cases. I'm positive of that. I just don't know when the Georgia Court of Appeals and the California Court of Appeals will hear those that stay request and will either grant it or deny it. It's up in the air. The eligibility for these three players is probably going to change multiple times between now and the start of the season and maybe even into the season. It is insanely frustrating that this is the situation that we find ourselves in. That Gonzaga does not know if two of their point guard, frankly, I don't know if all three of their point guards are on the roster or not. On September 7th, we don't know that situation. One of them is not in Javon Benout. Two of them are not. Nathan D'Souza technically not eligible yet. One of them, Xavier and Lee is, but that could change.

7:14They're just in this really frustrating situation. So many of the other questions we have about this roster and this team, how does Braden Hufflook come off of the injury? His Davis Fogel take the leap. What kind of role do these freshmen have? We're going to talk about all of those questions. All of them are kind of wrapped into this question because the role for Luca Foster changes dramatically if Chancey Wiggins isn't on this roster. The role for Davis Fogel maybe changes more than anybody else's based on that. The role for Braden Huff changes to an extent depending on who's getting in the basketball, how much spacing they have with somebody like Wiggins on the floor. So it's a huge monumental deal for Gonzaga to get these three players eligible and to keep them eligible. It's just not a whole lot they can do to control that situation. The other question here is about the international players. Eson Almanza committed to Gonzaga in May, Nathan D'Souza committed to Gonzaga in June and here we are in early September and the NCAA has not officially granted either of them eligibility for this upcoming season. D'Souza's in-spoken, he got a trial visa, has arrived in Spokane.

8:18My assumption is that he is taking classes and that he is on his way towards being a Gonzaga player this upcoming season. He cannot participate with the team, the social media poll cannot practice, he cannot do anything affiliated with the team. He can enroll in school. But that is the only thing he can do at this point until the NCAA grants him eligibility this season. Same situation with Eson Almanza who was with the team earlier this off season to get not practicing or anything but he was with the team for that de Monticevone celebration a couple months ago. But neither of these players are eligible to be with the team and we don't know when the NCAA will grant that. D'Souza should get eligible. His case feels fairly simple to me. Yes, he's played professionally but not at a super high level based on the new five and five rules which to have gone into effect, he should have one year of eligibility based on his 19th birthday. Eson Almanza should have three years of eligibility based on his birthday. His case is more complicated however because he played professionally in the G league with the ignite. He played professionally in the NBL with Perth Wildcats. He played professionally last year with Real Madrid.

9:19But they're looking into are those contracts how much money he made what the baseline salary is in those specific leagues and whether that goes above what they consider actual and necessary expenses in order to determine whether he's eligible. Based on what the NCAA says the rules are Almanza's eligibility is probably going to be difficult to acquire. Now, Bobbacar Sané who is teammates with Eson Almanza at the G league ignite, he is currently a forward committed to St. John's. He is pursuing a lawsuit against the NCAA right now because they denied him as eligible. He is currently a forward committed to the NCAA right now because he's been denied as eligible. Frankly, I would not be surprised if that ends up being the result for Eson Almanza is that his eligibility gets denied by the NCAA or possibly has already been denied by the NCAA. That is very possible. We didn't find out the time grant foster had been denied and appealed and denied and appealed like four times throughout the summer. We didn't find that out until October last year. So it's possible that's what's going on with that month and that legal action is the eventual result that we will get for him and his eligibility. Both of these players are critical for Gonzaga to choose it because he might be the only

10:21point guard on the roster if he gets eligible. He might be third string. He might be the starter. We don't know for Eson Almanza, the two players in front of him, Asama Jop and Braden Huff are both eligible and are both starting and are both going to play. But Almanza provides incredibly key depth, physicality, rebounding toughness in a front court that is sort of lacking in that area. Jop's a great player and a great rim protector. He's not a great rebounder. Neither is Huff, the two back up same punches and Parker Jefferson are guys who don't have any college basketball experience at this point. So Almanza is a very valuable piece to this team if he ends up eligible. And again, I think it may take legal action for that to end up happening. Well, Gonzaga's all the questions around this team do not entirely involve these five players in eligibility limbo, although they kind of have an impact on everything else. We're going to talk about the returners on this team, namely Braden Huff's health and Davis Fogel's breakout projections, all that coming up here in just a second. The first folks today's episode is brought to you by supplyhouse. You wouldn't show up on game day without having a plan just like you wouldn't show up

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12:24ADT security systems help keep your home safe 24-7 with the most company operated monitoring centers in the industry. The ADT plus app keeps you in control the whole time. Don't leave your home wide open during an emergency. And every second counts count on ADT. Visit ADT.com or call 1-800-ADT-ASAP. All right, folks. Second two. Stony Patton still locked on tax. Podcasts are rolling through some key questions still surrounding Mark Fee in the Gonzaga Bulldogs as they head into the 26th, 27th season their first as members of the Pact 12 which we'll talk about to close out the show their first after their head coach was officially enshrined in the Naysmith basketball hall of fame. And what we want to talk about now is partially a comment that Mark Fee made at that hall of fame ceremony about three weeks ago regarding returning forward Bradenhoff. Bradenhoff of course has been in the program for a handful of years now was a very, very

13:26excellent backup center to Grammy K both as a freshman and as a sophomore at the tail end of his sophomore year he entered the starting lineup alongside Grammy K was a shrewd decision by the coaching staff in part to throw off Randy Bennett and the Gales in that WCC championship game but also to kind of prep those two players to start together last year and half junior year. And those two guys did start together last year and were outstanding until Bradenhoff suffered a season ending injury in mid January. At the time of Huff's injury I think it's hard to like people forget this because Grammy K ended up averaging 20 points a game and becoming an all American but Bradenhoff and Graham E.K. were averaging this same points per game when Huff got hurt in mid January. He was averaging 17.8 points 5.6 rebounds per game suffered that injury in a practice just before Gonzaga's road game against Washington state. It was reported as like a four to eight week return window four Huff at the time. It kind of felt like if it's close to that eight weeks he's probably not going to return

14:28at all that ended up being the situation. Gonzaga never really they never made it clear that Huff wasn't going to return for obvious reasons because Texas tech JT Topp and suffered his injury was a torn ACL. He was clearly going to miss the rest of the season and the tournament and the NCAA selection committee knocked Texas tech a seed line because they weren't going to have JT Topp and so if you had a player who had a window where they could conceivably return for the NCAA tournament you were going to keep very quiet about that and about their status because you didn't want the NCAA to punish you for that. So that was part of the deal with Huff. Again, I don't think it was like malicious by Gonzaga or anything just you know they were going to play that pretty close to the vest. But because Huff was reportedly close to returning for the NCAA tournament how close you know hard to say it's not a shock that he is recovered quite well at this point. And that's what Mark Fuse said at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in August he was asked about this by Theo Loss from the spokesman review. He basically said they're they're babying Huff they're taking it really easy with them

15:31but that they don't really need to he's be as great like he's doing fine. He's he's moving well. He does not seem to be impacted by the injury. They've posted a few video clips a few like pictures of recent workouts and you can see Huff on the floor with the team. He wasn't in a lot of them earlier in the year and I think he was kind of being held out of a lot of early season June workouts which makes sense. At that time Gonzaga didn't have a full team and so he would have been having to work really hard and scrimmages and so they were just doing different stuff, scrimmage wise and pushing him too hard early on just was never necessary. It's not like he needs to learn the concepts or anything he's been in this offense for a very long time. So by all accounts Huff is ready to roll. Neandries can linger they can come back and I think that's the big kind of question here is Huff may be at or near 100% right now. Will he stay at or near 100% as the season goes on? Will he struggle in games like will he struggle in Vegas for a feast week when they play

16:32three games in three days? I guess they tighten away this year. It's a game off day and then two games in two days. So maybe it'll be a little easier but you know those are the kind of questions where it might be tough for him to recover very quickly. And again this is just speculation. You don't know the full extent even of the injury of what it was but that is that's why it's a question around this Gonzaga team is Huff going to be the same at Braden Huff because if so he's an all-american. He's one of the best players in the country is one of the most efficient scorers. I mean he was last year 18 points a game on 70% shooting from two. Now he has an elite rim protector next to him in Missamba, G.O.P. A very good low post player but who doesn't need the same amount of touches as Graham Nique. This offense should funnel through Huff all season long and he should be the guy, the man. And I think that there's a lot of I mean that defenses can't throw as much at him because of G.O.P. Like I think he's in a really really good spot to be one of the best players in the entire country. Obviously again who is getting him the basketball will matter a lot and whether they have somebody like Chancé Wiggins who can be an elite floor spacer is a question as well because if Huff

17:36is surrounded by G.O.P. and Harwell and Fogel and Lee that's not a bad group but that's not a lot of three point shooting. So team there's going to pack and pack and pack the paint on Braden Huff and force him to get rid of the basketball and force to Zeg to beat them from deep. If Chancé Wiggins is on the team that becomes a little bit easier. That's also where Luca Foster factors in which we'll talk about in the final segment. And it's also where Davis Fogel factors in which is what we're going to talk about right here. Fogel has been set up by everybody on the planet to be a sophomore breakout candidate. Everybody believes that Davis Fogel will take the leap as a sophomore. Adam Ficklestein of 247 Sports recently did a little video clip. He did a full podcast talking about breakout candidates in the sport. He did a four minute clip or so on Davis Fogel and basically said regardless of whether Zavion Lee and the rest of those five and five guys are on this roster. Davis Fogel is going to be a breakout candidate. He may be more on the ball. He may be a more of an initiator if he is if Lee is an eligible or he may be playing

18:36more on traditional wing role. But either way, he's going to break out. That is what I have been saying. And that is what I still continue to believe. I think there is a there is an outcome where Davis Fogel is kind of a jumbo point guard for the Zegs. I don't think it's their preferred option. If it was, they wouldn't have gone after Zavion Lee and Javon Bennett for that matter. But it is an option that they can use. And even if Lee is eligible. It's still something they could run at times this season. But Fogel is a tremendous, tremendous offensive player and the growth that he showed from the start of his freshman year to the end of his freshman year was astronomical. Not just as a score. In fact, his scoring was great out of the shoot, but his passing, his defense, his awareness, all of those things improved dramatically. Now he's had a full off season to work on his game to refine those things. I think he's coming into this year as an all-packed 12 first teamer as a 15 to 18 point per

19:37game guy again, it's kind of depending on the personnel around him. And as a potential NBA draft pit, which is maybe not great news for Gonzaga going forward, but great news for them this upcoming season, at least. And I think he's a player that I'm not sure there is a player on this roster that is a bigger swing player for Gonzaga's ceiling and floor than Davis Fogel. You could argue it's off in his health and certainly he is incredibly significant. You could argue it's Lee and whether he ends up eligible. But to me, it is Davis Fogel. If he can scale up to a 25 to 28 minute per game role while still being an efficient score, while improving defensively, while being able to play some point guard, while shooting well from three, that's a big swing skill for him as well. 35% last year, it was on a pretty low volume. And he be a consistent 35% point shooter or better or does that drop? That's a big swing skill for him. If he can do that, that helps Gonzaga and Huff and Jop and everybody a ton and of course

20:41helps his draft stock as well. Davis Fogel is a massive critical piece of Gonzaga's roster this upcoming season. And I'm inclined to believe we're going to see a huge, huge year from him as a sophomore. Gonzaga has an entirely new crop of opponents to face this year. It's everything's new for this X, new conference, new teams to play. How might that factor into the season? We're going to talk about that and the freshman class all coming up here in just a second. The first folks today's episode is brought to you by Square. Square is the system powering so many of the places that we already know and love. So whether you're running a packed game day spot, a local restaurant or a growing business, Square gives sellers the tools to run their business without making things more complicated. Firebrings, payments, inventory payroll, invoices, customer insights and more, all in one connected system. So whether you're a one location business or growing to multiple locations, Square gives you the tools to sell, manage and grow without needing an entire IT team to figure it all out for you. And that's something I appreciate about those local spots.

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23:48We're going to talk about the freshman to close out the show but right now I want to talk about the schedule not the non conference schedule which looks fantastic by the way Purdue UCLA Michigan State Duke LSU Creighton Arkansas the non conference Oregon it's a fantastic schedule for the Zags but they're also playing a new conference schedule. Gone are the days of game planning against Randy Bennett and the Gales and Santa Clara and San Francisco and Portland and Pepperdine and Pacific and San Diego and all those teams and while yes those programs of course underwent coaching changes and style changes and personnel changes and even ebbs and flows in terms of how successful they were Gonzaga got pretty darn use to preparing they knew what it was going to look like inside Firestone Field House or the Child Center they knew what kind of opponent they were going to face and now all of that is different. They're playing new teams they're playing new coaches they've never faced before they're playing at new arenas that they've never played at before. They're playing at elevation like there are all sorts of things that are different

24:49for this team as they get into the pack 12 of the upcoming season. Three of the eight teams that Gonzaga is going to face this year are teams they're familiar with. Of course you have Washington State and Oregon State. Two teams that Gonzaga has played four or five times over the last couple of years. Wazoo obviously both of them were in the WCC as affiliate members so Gonzaga got comfortable playing both of them playing at Beasley Coliseum and in Corvallis at Gil Coliseum and then of course hosting them at home they're used to it's a new coaching staff for Oregon State so that'll be different in a very new roster but again at least they're familiar with the program and familiar with what is the absolute furnace that is Gil Coliseum in Corvallis. Of course familiar with David Riley and Wazoo from the last couple of years as well. Gonzaga is also familiar with Brian Dutcher and San Diego States having played the Aztecs at V.A. House Arena having hosted the Aztecs having played against Dutcher specific style and coaching and the types of personnel that they bring in. So those are three programs that I feel Gonzaga is comfortable with. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy. Washington State doesn't look like they're going to be great

25:52this year. Oregon State's definitely a wild card with a new coach and a new roster. San Diego State obviously is always tough. I'm not a huge fan of their roster this year but they're always tough and I wouldn't discount them by any stretch. But they're at least familiar. The other five programs to say the very least are not. Gonzaga's record against these five programs combined is four and one. That's it. That's it. They've played these teams five times since Mark Futec over as the head coach. Boji State's only team they've played more than once. They've played them twice the last match up. The most recent match up was in December of 2000. They have not played Boji State in a quarter century. Part of that is Leon Rice taking over as Boji State's head coach back in 2010. Leon Rice and Mark Fute long time very very good friends still close friends to this day. And that does matter in the sense that it means Gonzaga will be somewhat prepared for Leon Rice and who he is as a coach but not really. And also any advantage that Gonzaga might feel they have being familiar with Rice. Rice probably has just as much if not more

26:57having seen Mark like Mark spent 10 years next to Leon Rice as an assistant coach. Leon spent 10 years next to Mark Fute as a head coach. And well, if he was a very different coach now than he was then there's there's still some familiarity there. And I think it goes both ways. But Gonzaga has not played an extra mile arena in Boji. They have not played this team on the road. This is not a team they are particularly familiar with even with that familiarity with coach Rice Utah State Gonzaga's played once. There one and oh against the Aggies now is back in November of 2017. Here's a fun fact from that date November of 2017 a game Gonzaga won until now Utah State is on their fifth head coach. That is unbelievable. This team has been good like very very good in that period of time. They've went over 70% of their games since November of 2017 until now. And they're on their fifth head coach unreal. This is a very proud and dedicated fan base that arena pops. It's really loud. It is a tough place to play. They are a good well coach team Mason Falsleves is a great player.

27:57And Gonzaga is not familiar. They have not had to prepare for a team like this in a while. It is different. It is if St. Mary's was in a 30,000 seat area. I don't think it's 30,000. But if St. Mary's was in a much bigger arena, that's the closest. It's a little bit like Provo I suppose in BYU not quite that size either. But still a tough place to play that Gonzaga doesn't have familiarity with. Gonzaga's 1 in 0 against Fresno State the last time they played them was 2001. Gonzaga's 1 in 0 against Colorado State the last time they played them was in November of 2013. And Gonzaga has never played Texas State at all period. Never played them in San Marcus. Never played them in Spokane. Never played them anywhere else. So Gonzaga does not have a lot of familiarity with these teams. I don't think it's going to matter dramatically in the sense that I don't think they're going to suddenly drop to 500 and league play or drop a bunch of like hideous games to Fresno and Texas State or anything like that. But it is going to matter. It's going to matter that this team is not familiar with Utah State because they're really good. It could trip them up against

28:58Coach Ali Farukmaneschen Colorado State, especially with elevation and Fort Collins being a factor. Like this is it's just new. And again, we're we're we're posing questions around Gonzaga. We're not answering them. I'm not going to give you an answer on what exactly I think this means. But I think it's silly to assume it's not relevant. It is. They're better teams. That's obviously part of the relevance, but also they're just new and unfamiliar teams and unfamiliar coaches. And I think ultimately that makes the job for this coaching staff harder in an off season that has already been the hardest that this coaching staff has ever had to deal with just in terms of roster retention and roster management, which is not something that's usually as difficult as it was. Now they got a prep for a whole new crop of teams. And then finally, we talked newcomers. We talked transfer additions. We're going to talk freshmen as well to close out the show. Is this freshman class ready to roll? And ultimately, this question again ties nicely into the very first question or the first two questions because how much they're needed will depend. Same punches may play very, very little this season, but he may play a lot more if he said on months is not eligible. Luca Foster may play a lot

30:02more if Chancy Wiggins is not eligible or for that matter, Lee or Bennett, because those two guys would force football to play more at the one, which would open up more minutes on the way, where Luca Foster might end up playing more. Joanna Kanga, how I not expected to be a big time player, but if Foster's playing more so is Joanna Kanga, how a 18 year old from France. I don't think Gonzaga's plan is to rely on any of these three players to have a huge role this season. I think Foster is the only one that's probably going to have a role. And frankly, if the roster comes together where all five of those international all five of those eligibility limbo guys, Lee, Bennett, Disuzza, Almanza and Wiggins, if all of them are eligible, Foster's probably number 10, which isn't typically part of the rotation. So I think that ultimately there's a reality where none of these guys play significant minutes this upcoming season, but that could change, potentially will change, could change during the season with eligibility situations and potentially injuries and things like that. So how ready this group is, all reports about Foster are very positive.

31:05At this point, I think he can fight his way into the rotation regardless of what happens with the eligibility, but he may not have to fight. He may end up in the rotation because they need him to be. And it sure sounds like he's ready, but that still remains a question for this team. Same with Funches, I think ultimately Parker Jefferson probably ends up the third big if Almanza is ineligible, but Funches then becomes the fourth big. He could still matter. That could still be relevant, especially with Huff's injury history, especially with Jefferson being inexperienced like you never know what could end up happening there. So that's another question for this team as we head into the 26-27 season. It's going to wrap it up for me today, here on the Lockdowns Ags podcast. Folks, thank you so much for making the show your first listener watch of the daily back. More fun stuff this week. Keep you up to date on what's going on with that eligibility cases for the international guys and the class of 2022. Of course, we'll keep looking at more questions around this team as we get closer and closer to the start of the season. Hopefully get some news on those exhibition games getting scheduled as well. Thanks again, folks. Have a fantastic rest of your day. And of course, as always, go Zags. So if you've ever furnished a

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