Last season saw the arrival on Gonzaga's campus of the so-called "Tricky Trio" of freshmen Jalen Suggs, Julian Strawther and Dominick Harris. Those three represented the highest-rated recruiting class in Gonzaga program history, the sixth-ranked class in the country according to 247sports. It should come as little surprise, then, that as the program continues to improve, so too does the recruiting.
This season's freshman class of Chet Holmgren, Hunter Sallis, Nolan Hickman and Kaden Perry ranked fourth overall nationally, knocking last season's class from the program's all-time top spot.
Holmgren, the top-ranked individual recruit in the country, was generating buzz as the potential top pick in the NBA Draft even before he suited up at Gonzaga. Since 2006, when the NBA required players to be at least one year removed from high school before they're eligible for the draft, every single top-ranked recruit has been drafted with a top-10 pick — and of them, only Harrison Barnes spent more than one year in college.
Don't bet on Holmgren sticking around for a second season, given what he's delivered this year. Among the GU freshmen, Holmgren's impact has been the most impressive.
What's been equally impressive is the way the other freshmen have bought into their roles. Along with Holmgren, Sallis and Hickman were named to the 2021 McDonald's All-American Game. While Holmgren claims the top spot as the highest-ranked recruit in program history, Sallis and Hickman aren't far behind at third and fifth respectively, and Perry isn't much behind them at ninth.
By and large, freshmen at their level, freshmen who have a real shot to be one-and-done and off to the NBA, don't come off the bench. It doesn't matter if they go to programs like Kentucky, Duke or Kansas that are loaded, year in and year out, with elite talent. These kinds of freshmen find their way into the starting lineup wherever they choose to play.
Yet here they are, at Gonzaga, coming off the bench.
"I just think it's the culture they've built up here," says Alex Jensen, radio play-by-play announcer for the Saint Mary's Gaels. "You have guys buying in. You have the older guys showing young guys; Drew Timme's an All-American, and he came off the bench when he was a freshman. You just have a good culture and leadership structure in place where the younger guys are buying into what Mark Few is doing and the older guys are laying the foundation for younger guys of how they do things at Gonzaga."
What Gonzaga has done over the past few seasons is wade into the world of the one-and-done player without giving up on that leadership structure that comes with having experienced upperclassmen. And that's not just an outside observation, either.
"I even say that I wouldn't go anywhere else, just because of the practices alone here. They're remarkable. I love them," Hickman said on a recent episode of the Mark Few Show. "Me and Andrew (Nembhard) go back and forth every single practice. Going against the upperclassmen, me being an underclassman, I learn so much from them."
Hickman, a Seattle product averaging 6.6 points in 19.2 minutes per game this season, de-committed from Kentucky to come to Gonzaga. That Kentucky program's entire mentality is to take elite talent and send them to the NBA, as quickly as possible. Instead, Hickman's here, coming off the bench. As a result, he'll likely be back next season.
"[Nembhard] knows that I'm the next up anyways. He's just trying to feed me whatever I need to progress and be better," Hickman says.
That sort of player development over time has always been Gonzaga's modus operandi, but recently they've started doing it with blue-chip prospects instead of the diamond-in-the-rough types they had to dig for once upon a time. These players, like Hickman and Sallis, are good enough to go pro after just one season in Spokane. Though, so far, most haven't. Zach Collins (who did come off the bench in his lone season) in 2017 and Jalen Suggs in 2021 are the only one-and-dones Gonzaga's had so far, though Holmgren is almost certain to become the third.
Suggs and Holmgren were in different situations than most, though. Had it been allowed, those two would have been drafted into the NBA straight out of high school. The same can't be said with certainty for the rest of Gonzaga's recruits.
What can be said, though, is that these guys who are coming off the bench now, like Strawther a year ago, will be in the starting lineup in a year's time should they choose to stick around, and they'll be better off for it. Their draft stock will be better, and so will the Zags. ♦
