Not every fan tunes in to watch their team play defense. Some endure it. Some check their phone, refresh their drink, or stare blankly at the shot clock until the ball goes back in the other direction. And if you’re a Gonzaga fan, it’s probably something you’ve learned to appreciate in theory more than in practice. The Zags haven’t been bad defensively, not exactly. But for most of the past 25 years, they’ve been an offense-first blitzkrieg of scoring, putting up enough points per game to erase whatever lapses might exist on the defensive end. Speed, spacing, surgical offense. That’s the brand. But when a defense really clicks, when rotations cut off air, when pressure beats the dribble, when shooters start catching the ball and second-guessing their own existence, it’s beautiful in a different way. And lately, it’s been missing from the Gonzaga experience. That might be about to change.
The Zags enter the 2025-2026 season without Ryan Nembhard, Nolan Hickman, or Khalif Battle, three of last year’s primary offensive creators. But the bench carries more defensive firepower than any Gonzaga roster in recent memory. The Zags will no longer need to score in the triple digits or burn through offensive sets to keep pace with their opponents. They’ll be able to clamp down early, string together stops, and tilt the floor even when the shots aren’t falling. It will look like a team that takes things away on purpose, and that should excite people. Because when the defense becomes the attraction, everything else gets easier.
The Breaking Point
It was an ugly, ugly game in the middle of what had already been an ugly month for Zag fans. And by the time Santa Clara hit their 18th three-pointer in Gonzaga’s home loss to the Broncos in January, Mark Few looked like a man without answers. The staff had already cycled through every defensive formation and lineup they could script. They trapped, switched, scrambled, sagged. None of it mattered. “On ice skates,” he said of the Bulldogs’ defense in postgame, visibly exasperated after watching his team surrender 103 points at home to a conference opponent for the first time in program history.
The Santa Clara loss came just days after a 97 to 89 overtime collapse against Oregon State, a game in which the Beavers shot 59 percent from the field and took 37 free throws to Gonzaga’s 25. For the first time in over a decade, the Zags had dropped back-to-back league games, and the poor defensive showing by the Bulldogs was beginning to look less like an aberration and more like just a thing they weren’t good at doing.
Nolan Hickman didn’t hedge when asked what was wrong. “Missing assignments and our spirit,” he said. “We can’t play like that… Got to have some heart. Got to show it.” That sense of disconnection unfortunately had become habitual by last winter and surfaced late in games, when the margin for error shrank. Reactive rotations, forced decisions, and a palpable urgency to score replaced the need to get stops on the other end. Braden Huff framed it more directly: “We’ve got to know our assignments, really buy into the scouting reports, and just take pride in that.”
Fortunately, that team figured it out. Over the final 15 games of the 2024-25 season, Gonzaga made some subtle changes to their gameplan, ramped up the defensive intensity and looked like a brand new squad. In that stretch, the Zags held opponents to 65.5 points per game on 39.4 percent shooting. Their adjusted defensive efficiency improved by more than 10 points in KenPom metrics, jumping from outside the top 90 to top 30 nationally. It was a measurable, visible improvement built on effort and improved communication.
The turnaround was the result of a series of adjustments that gradually tightened the perimeter and made life harder for opposing guards. Hickman, Nembhard, and Battle started picking up earlier in the halfcourt, fighting through screens and staying connected, less reliant on help-side rotations to plug driving lanes. Emmanuel Innocenti stabilized coverage from the middle of the zone, reading spacing, stunting without overcommitting, and keeping the structure intact. Michael Ajayi, whose offense remained streaky, found a role in the full-court press. He attacked ballhandlers, played with urgency, and created disruption. Over time, teams stopped getting to their spots. Gonzaga started dictating the terms.
What’s Back
That version of Gonzaga played its best basketball in March, but the team’s 2025 tournament seeding reflected the damage done during the winter. The good news is that what last year’s group had to construct on the fly, this year’s team brings from day one.
At the center of that is Emmanuel Innocenti, still Gonzaga’s most potent defensive piece. Few defenders in college basketball rotate as decisively or communicate as clearly. He defends on-ball and off the dribble without fouling, closes space without overcommitting, and stunts with control. Mark Few leaned on Innocenti more and more as last season wore on, and he trusts him. There’s been plenty of speculation on the extent of Innocenti’s role this season due to his offensive question marks, but Few is not the kind of coach who takes minutes away from someone who defends, competes, and keeps the system intact when the guys who are supposed to be getting buckets fade into the scenery.
And behind it all waits Ismaila Diagne, a true rim protector whose presence gives Gonzaga a different geometry than what’s available with Graham Ike or Braden Huff. In Gonzaga’s second matchup with Santa Clara last February, Diagne showed exactly what he could offer. With foul trouble forcing Ike and Huff to the bench, Diagne entered midway through the first half and immediately changed the floor. Santa Clara had opened 12 of 17 from the field and 8 of 8 from three. After Diagne checked in, they shot just 12 of 36 overall and 3 of 17 from deep.
After a season interrupted by an MCL injury, a concussion, and a weeks-long illness, he now enters healthy, physically developed, and fully integrated into the gameplan. For the first time in his Gonzaga career, he isn’t competing for a role. He’s offering something the players ahead of him can’t.
What’s New
With the additions of Tyon Grant-Foster, Jalen Warley, and Braeden Smith, Gonzaga now has a rotation full of players who can guard the ball, cover space, and keep opponents away from the rim should the pace and efficiency of the offense begin to sag. They can switch when needed, stay connected through motion, and take away rhythm before an offense even begins to take shape in the halfcourt. Gonzaga now has a lineup that can shut things down in space, in the corners, off the catch, wherever it shows up.
The perimeter has gotten longer and sharper. Warley arrives as a proven coverage guard, most effective when tempo rises and ballhandlers are forced into early reads. At Florida State, his best defensive work came with the press engaged. He jumped lanes, baited mistakes, and forced resets before possessions ever got off the ground.
Tyon Grant-Foster brings something different, and something the Zags have been missing since the departure of Brandon Clarke. At six-foot-seven with long arms and elite recovery speed, he ranked in the top six percentile nationally in defensive rebounding, block, and steal rates last season at Grand Canyon. His 1.5 blocks per game didn’t come from chase-downs or weak-side surprises but from timing, footwork, and positioning. He not only shouldered the scoring load for the ‘Lopes last season, he was also one of the most effective stoppers in the Mountain West.
Finally, Braeden Smith might be the most tenacious rebounding guard Gonzaga has brought in at the one since Nigel Williams-Goss. He averaged 5.2 defensive boards per game at Colgate, the highest mark in the country among guards under six-foot-two. Like Williams-Goss before him, Smith seems to understand where the ball is headed the moment it hits the rim and uses his quickness and athleticism to fight for possession despite his size.
The Real Transformation
With the additions of Braeden Smith, Adam Miller, Mario Saint-Supery, and Tyon Grant-Foster, Gonzaga has addressed its most urgent offensive gaps. But that’s not the real shift. What has changed most is what’s now available off the bench.
For the first time in years, Gonzaga can deploy a full defensive unit. Five players who don’t need touches, don’t chase rhythm, and don’t give up space. They just get stops.
Innocenti, Warley, and Diagne can slot in to slow possessions, shrink the court, and force opposing lineups to adjust. Few no longer has to choose between offensive continuity and defensive integrity. He can toggle between looks without compromising either. There’s a second wave of coverage ready to hit the floor and it can lock down any team in the country.
That kind of depth changes how games feel. Gonzaga can turn a lead into a drought or a deficit into dead air. It can press, trap, switch, or zone without losing shape. The matchup problems fall on the other bench. The tempo stays in Gonzaga’s hands even when the scoring doesn’t.
Last year, they scrambled to survive. This year, they have the lineup to shut things down.
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