Gonzaga among the top player development programs in college basketball

Julian Strawther waited until the very last possible day to announce he’d be returning to Gonzaga for his junior season.

It’s not a guarantee the 6-foot-7 wing would have been drafted after a sophomore campaign in which he put up 11.8 points and 5.4 rebounds for a Sweet 16 team, but he made a strong case as a solid 3-point shooter with size. Nonetheless, Strawther returned to Spokane and put up even better numbers in 2022-23 — 15.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game while shooting 40.8% from 3-point range on high volume. After earning All-WCC honors, Strawther was drafted in the first round by the reigning champion Denver Nuggets last June.

Strawther wasn’t featured heavily as a rookie, though the Las Vegas native’s path to the pros is a similar path walked by many former Gonzaga players. Corey Kispert, Rui Hachimura, Kelly Olynyk and Domantas Sabonis are some notable names who spent multiple seasons in college before developing into first-round talents. The school’s track record of NBA players speaks for itself (10 active alum) but also consider that only three of those (Zach Collins, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Suggs) were one-and-dones. 

The advanced numbers also back up Gonzaga’s player development as one of the best in the country. According to a study from basketball analytics site EvanMiya.com, the Bulldogs rank third in the nation in average player improvement over a year-to-year basis based on Bayesian Performance Rating, which quantifies how effective a player is using advanced box-score metrics, play-by-play data and historical information. The Zags had the third-highest average BPR over the last 10 seasons behind Purdue and Houston.

Anton Watson, the latest NBA hopeful to come out of Gonzaga, is a prime example of a player who increasingly expanded his game year by year. The Spokane native improved his BPR over the last four seasons of his career and finished No. 4 in the country in BPR as a fifth-year senior. Watson’s 8.61 BPR was the third-highest for a Gonzaga player since the 2011-12 season.

Purdue’s two-time National Player of the Year Zach Edey was No. 1 in the country in BPR. The 7-foot-4 Canadian put together an illustrious college career after being ranked 436th in the recruiting services coming out of IMG Academy. Houston’s Jamal Shead, who had the third-highest BPR in the nation, was a three-star recruit before blossoming into a consensus All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year as a senior in 2023-24.

Next season, Gonzaga returns a lot of talent — seven of its top eight scorers, including four of five starters. According to Bart Torvik, the Bulldogs have the fifth-highest retention rate in college basketball based on percentage of minutes returning. Given how the advanced metrics shape up, it’s apparent why Mark Few is bringing back so many of his players from last season.