By Aidan Joly
The 2019-20 season was supposed to end in another deep tournament run and potentially a national championship game appearance for Gonzaga. Their season, along with everyone else’s ended due to COVID-19 before they got that chance.
However, what’s good for the Bulldogs is that their 2020-21 roster is arguably better than last’s year edition, despite losing a pair of stars in Killian Tillie and Filip Petrusev.
Taking their place, enter Drew Timme and Anton Watson in the frontcourt.
Timme is expected to be the go-to guy in Mark Few’s offense this season after having a great campaign as Petrusev’s backup center last season, averaging 9.8 PPG and 5.4 RPG in just 20 minutes per contest as a freshman. There’s no reason not to believe that he is poised to become the next great Gonzaga center with his size and strength, as well as his natural shooting ability in the post.
Watson should be a fun player to watch. He was limited to just 15 games last season due to a shoulder injury. He wasn’t the best player on the floor but he played a role, averaging 5 points and 3 rebounds per game in about 15 minutes. The key part to his game though is on the other side of the ball. He is a fantastic defender and is for sure capable of winning a WCC defensive player of the year sometime down the line if he can stay healthy.
The third part of the frontcourt is Corey Kispert, who is a future NBA player and the definition of a glue guy. He can do it all, averaging 13.9 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game last year while shooting 43.8% from behind the three-point line making him one of the best sharpshooters in the country, and 81.8% from the free throw line. He also has a great defensive ability. All of that, along with his senior experience and leadership, make him an especially important player for this team.
As reserves, Oumar Ballo should be a solid backup center as he slides into the role that Timme had last season. Freshman Julian Strawther is versatile and may get some minutes as they get into WCC play, despite Kispert probably playing around 35 minutes per game this season.
In the backcourt, you are looking at Joel Ayayi and Jalen Suggs in the starting lineup.
Suggs, the 11th ranked recruit in the country according to 247 Sports, is the best recruit that Gonzaga has had in their reign of terror over the WCC. He can shoot from the outside, score in transition, throw down monster dunks and play good defense. He’s a near-lock to be one-and-done, but there’s every reason to think he’ll be one of the most exciting players in the country this season.
Ayayi, a combo guard was a surprise for the Zags last season, averaging 10.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game this past year. He is a fantastic rebounder and is the guy that can take the last shot in a game if they need one. He has NBA potential, but this season should look to improve on being a bit better from behind the three-point line, where he shot 34.5% as well as being a better ball handler to really get a look from teams.
Freshman Dominick Harris, a combo guard, and Southern Illinois grad transfer Aaron Cook will be the guys off the bench here. Harris is a guy who does well in getting to the rim, but it’s tough to see him getting a ton of meaningful minutes right off the bat. Cook only played in six games last season in his senior year with Southern Illinois, but in those games he averaged 15 points per game. He won’t have those big numbers at Gonzaga, but he should be a solid role player. A pair of international recruits, Martynas Arlauskus and Pavel Zakharov, may see time occasionally.
High expectations in Spokane have become the norm over the past decade or so. They will be battle-tested early in the year with a great non-conference schedule, including a monster game against Baylor, but they should run into little problems in the conference slate, despite the usual competitors in BYU and St. Mary’s. They are all but a lock to win the WCC, and at least a Final Four run should be the expectation here.
AJ Hoops 