Emmanuel Innocenti Might Be the Best Defender in College Basketball

I’ve spent the last hour combing X and YouTube for video clips of Emmanuel Innocenti doing what he does best: playing spectacular on-ball defense. The dude’s a lockdown disruptor at the point of attack, and it’s just simply not something you come by often in the world of college basketball anymore. But the unfortunate fact is that, regardless of how well it’s played, defense rarely makes the highlight reels. That doesn’t mean Zag fans shouldn’t be absolutely psyched to watch last year’s best surprise do what he does best once again in 2025-26. This time, on a roster built with balance in mind.

When Emmanuel Innocenti transferred to Gonzaga, the reaction was polite curiosity more than excitement. The offseason noise revolved around incoming transfers Michael Ajayi and Khalif Battle, scorers built for the kind of offense that has defined the Mark Few era. Innocenti’s name was kind of lost in the shuffle: a defender from Tarleton State whose calling card was effort, whose highlight tape was mostly box outs and deflections. But as last season unfolded, he turned that effort into trust. His energy never wavered, his production never faltered, and his minutes followed the same steady climb.

Few guards have stayed on the floor at Gonzaga for their defense alone. Most who earn Few’s trust do it through efficiency and scoring. Innocenti made a different case. He played through contact, kept the offense moving, and carried himself like every possession was a chance to prove he belonged. By February, he had done exactly that. When Gonzaga needed stops, he was there. When the team’s rhythm broke, he steadied it through movement and communication more than through scoring.

There’s an easy way to measure Innocenti’s value to Gonzaga. Just ask yourself who else in the last ten years has managed to carve out significant minutes in Few’s rotation on hustle and defense alone. The list begins and ends with him. He’s a connective piece, a worker who gives Gonzaga something it’s rarely had: someone who holds the floor together when possessions start to fray. And maybe that’s the quiet mark of a healthy roster. It’s probably a good sign for your season when the guy who earned starting minutes last year becomes a puzzle piece to fit in somewhere the following year.

Gonzaga’s early January mixed bursts of brilliance with defensive lapses so severe they erased any offensive rhythm. Nolan Hickman and Khalif Battle had both slipped into shooting slumps, the lane kept crowding, and the offense narrowed into predictable patterns. Then Emmanuel Innocenti started playing real minutes. The thinking behind his increased role was presumably something along the lines of why not? If the backcourt offense was going to suck either way, why not at least have a great defender on the other end? It wasn’t some grand strategic move, more like a coach testing what still had pulse at a time when defensive effort was hard to come by. The kid from Tarleton State brought it. Within weeks, the energy shifted, the defense stopped leaking points, and Gonzaga’s tempo finally steadied.

The turnaround wasn’t subtle. From mid-January through the end of February, Gonzaga held opponents to their lowest shooting splits of the season and climbed nearly fifty spots in adjusted defensive efficiency. That sequence—Pacific, Pepperdine, Santa Clara, Saint Mary’s—tracked perfectly with Innocenti’s emergence. His minutes doubled, his defensive rating peaked, and Gonzaga’s lineups with him on the floor posted a net efficiency margin more than eight points better than those without him. Opponents’ effective field goal percentage dropped to 45.6, the team’s defensive rebounding rate cleared seventy-five percent, and the overall pace stabilized. His own numbers told the same story: a defensive box plus-minus of 4.6, a steal rate of 2.7 percent, and a defensive rebound share of 12.2 percent—production more typical of a forward than a guard.

His offense never caught fire, but it was far from the liability some suggested. His usage sat under ten percent, his jumper flickered, but his possessions made sense. In Gonzaga’s lowest-scoring games, he often graded out as their most efficient player, moving the ball, cutting at the right angles, keeping tempo alive through contact and fatigue. That combination of timing, control, and relentless energy gave Gonzaga’s season a much-needed jolt. The midseason turnaround didn’t start with a schematic revelation or a lucky streak, either. It started with a defender who forced everyone else to move with him and seemed to make it clear to those on the floor with him that defense could actually be fun as hell to play.

The path for Emmanuel Innocenti this season runs through versatility, not vacancy. Gonzaga’s backcourt and wing rotation is stacked. Braeden Smith, Jalen Warley, Adam Miller, Mario Saint-Supery, Davis Fogle, Steele Venters, and Tyon Grant-Foster all project as playable, and every one of them brings more offensive upside than Innocenti. That does not mean they can replicate what he does. If last year proved anything, it is that the Zags do not need Innocenti to score. They need him to erase scoring.

The problem last season was never the offense. It was what happened on the other end. Gonzaga spent the year getting beaten by rangy wings and confident scorers who could shoot over smaller guards and bully slower ones on the baseline. Michael Rataj at Oregon State hit a career high. Tyree Bryan at Santa Clara reached his season high. Eric Dailey Jr. at UCLA, Liam McNeely at UConn, Andrew Carr at Kentucky, and Javon Small at West Virginia each carved Gonzaga up in different ways. Sometimes it was a 6-8 forward punishing switches. Sometimes it was a guard getting downhill and collapsing the weak side. The pattern never changed. Opponents found rhythm, helped rotate late, and the same breakdowns kept flipping momentum. The defense did not fully stabilize until Innocenti’s minutes climbed.

The data makes the connection obvious. Once Innocenti began averaging more than 15 minutes per game, Gonzaga’s defensive efficiency improved by almost 7 points per 100 possessions. Opponent effective field goal percentage fell to 45.6, and the team’s defensive rebounding rate cleared 75 percent. Lineups with him on the floor were more than 8 points better per 100 possessions than those without him. When he played extended minutes, the midrange and baseline looks that had been killing Gonzaga largely disappeared.

At 6-5, Innocenti gives Mark Few what he lacked a year ago. He is a wing defender who can contain drives, absorb contact, and contest shots without fouling. He can guard one through three or sit at the center of a zone and read passing lanes from the middle. With Smith or Warley, he forms a perimeter tandem that can close gaps before the kick-out. With Venters or Grant-Foster, he covers the rebounding and physical deficits that come with offense-heavy lineups.

The best case for Innocenti is not that others fail but that Gonzaga learns to defend at the same level it scores. Last season, when he played 15 minutes or more, the Zags went 12-2 and held opponents to 44 percent inside the arc. His lineups were slower, steadier, and harder to rattle in close games. That version of Gonzaga looked sustainable.

That is the path forward for Innocenti. If the offense hums, he keeps it balanced. If the defense wobbles, he restores it. His value does not depend on anyone else’s decline. It depends on recognizing that the most offensively gifted roster of the Few era still needs someone who can make the other team stop scoring.

There is no real lineage for Emmanuel Innocenti. Mark Few has never coached a player who can raise the collective floor of a team while touching the ball so little. Gonzaga has had great scorers, rebounders, and shot-makers, but it has never had a player who could reshape tempo, poise, and intensity through defense alone. Innocenti does.

He shifts rhythm without ever demanding it. He steadies possessions that start to break. He quiets games before they unravel. The box score will never show what he gives the rotation: control, organization, and a defensive clarity that steadies everyone else. He doesn’t need volume to matter. He just needs to be on the floor long enough for the energy to tilt his way.

Innocenti might be the strangest kind of problem to have. He’s projected as one of the best defenders in college basketball, yet there’s no clear spot for him in the rotation. He defends like a starter, moves like a veteran, and reads the floor like someone who’s been in the system for years. The film and the numbers tell the same story: Gonzaga is better when he plays. The defense tightens, the tempo steadies, and possessions start to look connected again.

It’s rare to have a player who can change games without needing touches, rarer still to call that player a preseason question mark. Gonzaga has the scoring, the depth, and the firepower to overwhelm anyone. Innocenti gives them something else entirely. Few have built a team with more offensive talent than ever before, but the challenge now is balance. The Zags already know how to score; that part of the program identity isn’t ever going anywhere. Innocenti is the reminder that basketball can be just as electric when the other team can’t.