Coach Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs needed backcourt depth, and they found it in France’s LNB Elite division/EuroCup. 18-year-old 6-6 French combo guard Juwan Ekanga-Ehawa of JL Bourg’s U-21 team has committed to Gonzaga, according to Weave Agency and Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman.
This is a reopening of the ‘la République’ recruiting pipeline, with the last Zag being another combo guard in Joel Ayayi. He played for JL Bourg in Bourg-en-Bresse, France, also known as ‘Chicken Town,’ in 2024-25.
Ekanga-Ehawa averaged 19.1 points on a shooting split of 57 field goal percentage/31 three-point percentage/70 free throw percentage, plus 5.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 2.1 steals in 22 games this past season. He’s considered to be one of the top young prospects coming out of the country of France. Ekanga-Ehawa was named to the highly respected French Young Star Game in March and was later honored with the Most Improved Player for the Espoirs ELITE league in May.
Gonzaga had to find a backup point guard this offseason. Given his ball-handling and distributing skills for his more-than-average height, the immediately eligible Ekanga-Ehawa can fill that role. He’s uber versatile and can do a lot of little things really well that impact winning efforts. With the possibility of sophomore point guard Mario Saint-Supery entering his name in the future 2027 NBA Draft, Ekanga-Ehawa could be the outlook starter at the lead spot.
The Zags’ 2026-27 roster right now looks more and more like a top-ten team ready for the start of the Pac-12 Conference era, with 12 of the 15 roster spots potentially filled. Last season’s roster in Spokane, Washington, only had 14 players end up in the box scores, 10 of whom performed at least 15 minutes per contest.
6-4 sophomore point guard Mario Saint-Supery
6-6 sophomore guard/wing Isiah Harwell (Houston Cougars transfer)
6-7 sophomore wing Davis Fogle
6-10 redshirt senior forward Braden Huff
7-1 sophomore center Massamba Diop (Arizona State Sun Devils transfer)
6-6 true freshman combo guard Juwan Ekanga-Ehawa (France’s JL Bourg)
6-9 redshirt freshman forward Parker Jefferson
*6-10 forward/center Izan Almansa (Spain’s Real Madrid)
6-5 four-star wing Luca Foster (2026 high school recruiting class)
6-11 four-star center Sam Funches (2026 high school recruiting class)
6-5 walk-on wing Carter Nilson (2026 high school recruiting class)
5-11 walk-on redshirt freshman guard Alonzo Metz
*Needs NCAA to approve college eligibility
Gonzaga could really use one more veteran with shooting prowess to continue to buff up the backcourt, preferably with college basketball experience. But the coaching staff has seemingly transitioned completely to the international market. Plus one more walk-on to join Nilson and Metz, helping out on the scout team.
It’s been a gradual process, and there are still a couple of remaining question marks to fully complete the upcoming unit that looks to be solved within the next month. Keeping tags on another French target and FC Barcelona wing Nikola Kusturica.
Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area… Follow him on X @a_cravalho
