How Davis Fogle Could Become the Next Great Gonzaga Success Story

Davis Fogle hasn’t played a minute in Spokane yet, but he ranks among the most intriguing players on Gonzaga’s 2025–2026 roster. A 6’7” wing and consensus top-40 recruit, Fogle committed last summer as the program’s highest-rated high school addition since Nolan Hickman. After three years in Anacortes, Washington, Fogle spent his senior season at basketball development pipeline Compass Prep in Arizona, where he played his best basketball to date and rose steadily through the recruiting rankings. He now enters a locker room packed with veterans and portal additions—all of whom have something Fogle doesn’t: college experience. What happens next depends on how the staff manages that disparity. With Gonzaga suddenly very deep at the wing, Fogle could become an object lesson in how top-tier recruits can survive and thrive in a development-first program still crowded with veteran talent.

The Wild Card: Forecasting Davis Fogle’s First Season in Spokane

Fogle’s commitment to Gonzaga was already a major storyline for Zag fans a year ago, but what followed was a steady rise in his national profile thanks to event MVPs on the summer circuit, high-level reps against elite competition, and the kind of positional size that forced scouts to take him seriously. And yet, here we are in June, months from the start of the 2025–26 season, and the conversation around Fogle isn’t whether he’ll start or star. It’s whether he’ll play at all.

With the commitment of Tyon Grant-Foster and the looming Mario Saint-Supery newsbreak, there’s legitimate talk of a redshirt for Fogle—a move the Zags haven’t (willingly) pulled for any of their highest-ranked freshman recruits since Zach Norvell. There’s equally valid speculation that Fogle could emerge as one of the first players off the bench. Depending on how you read the rotation, Fogle’s floor and ceiling for minutes might be as far apart as any freshman in recent memory. That’s not an indictment—it’s a compliment. It means the Zags have options. And Fogle’s future, in many ways, offers a chance for Zag fans to glimpse once again how effective this developmental system can be.

Profile in Projection

After finishing up his time in Washington, Fogle spent last season playing at Compass Prep against the best high school competition in the country. He averaged 10.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.8 assists on 40% shooting from the field and 39% from three. He has good size for a wing at 6’7”, a smooth handle, and enough athleticism to grow into a real mismatch problem if his frame fills out. The outside shooting is the most vital need for the Zags this season, and Fogle brings a lot to the table—he’s fluid, confident, and can hit from deep both on the catch and on the move. Like all high school seniors, the rest of his game is still developing. His balance on contested shots, particularly off movement, still needs work, and the playmaking instincts that look sharp in the open floor sometimes flatten out against staunch half-court defenses. That said, the flashes of upside are impossible to ignore, and his game’s upward trajectory in the last year has been thrilling to watch.

For Zag fans, the comparison that looms largest (and most problematically, perhaps) is Dusty Stromer. Like Stromer, Fogle is a highly touted, wiry wing with a top-50 pedigree and a reputation as an off-ball floor marshal and bucket-getter. The difference is timing. Fogle walks into a deep Gonzaga team that doesn’t need him to play right away, though they could. And that might be his biggest advantage. After the season-ending knee injury to Steele Venters, Stromer entered the rotation immediately as a freshman and never quite found his footing. Fogle could chart a different path. The real question—the one coaches will find out for themselves in due time—is whether his upside is too obvious to keep him out of the rotation.

The Wing Logjam

Fogle already has the skills to position him near the top of the depth chart on the wing, at least offensively. Grant-Foster, the Grand Canyon transfer, is clearly the guy for the time being, and Steele Venters—if fully recovered from a torn Achilles and the prior season’s knee injury—is the most dangerous pure shooter on the team if he returns to form. But after those two, the race tightens. Fogle’s shooting touch gives him an edge over Florida State/Virginia transfer Jalen Warley, and his length and scoring ability give him an edge over last year’s breakout star, Emmanuel Innocenti. Despite his inexperience, Fogle is the only player in the group who profiles as a high-level shooter and a playmaker from the wing.

Defensively, however, the hierarchy flips. Grant-Foster remains the most switchable, physical wing defender. Warley can guard one through three, and although shorter than Warley, Innocenti is seemingly built out of cannonballs of various sizes and has proven capable of locking up smaller guards and spacing the defense from the interior. Fogle’s path to early minutes on the wing likely hinges on how fast the defensive part of his game develops to catch up with that of Warley/Innocenti, or whether his scoring offers enough to offset it.

The 2-Guard Curveball

There’s another scenario in play. It’s not the most likely, but it’s not a reach either: Fogle at the 2.

He played jumbo guard for much of his high school career in Washington before shifting to the wing at Compass Prep. And while Gonzaga doesn’t lack for backcourt depth, they do lack size at the 2. Both Adam Miller and Saint Supery could prove vulnerable against bigger guard sets, a problem the Zags have faced often in recent years, and Fogle’s length could space the floor if they find themselves bottled up. Warley and/or Innocenti could also handle spot minutes at the 2, but the offense they offer is streaky, and with Miller on the bench, the Zags lose a lot of firepower from outside. Fogle, if the staff trusts his foot speed and help-side awareness, could give the Zags a completely different look in the backcourt: long, rangy, and a dribble-drive threat who can still defend the perimeter.

It all comes down to matchups: if Miller struggles to get space against physical guards, or if Venters isn’t quite ready to run at game speed, or if Innocenti or Warley prove to be an offensive liability despite their defensive chops, Fogle’s versatility could matter a lot sooner than expected.

The Redshirt Question

If there’s a strong case against immediate minutes, it’s this: Gonzaga’s wing room is the deepest it’s been in years, but also the most unpredictable. Grant-Foster is here to play. Venters is, hopefully, finally healthy. Warley has been redshirting after a few very productive seasons against high-level competition for Florida State, and the argument could be made that the emergence of Innocenti was the main reason for Gonzaga’s pre-tournament grittiness recalibration last season. He’s earned his spot. So, what’s left for Fogle?

Redshirt?

The same word that hovered over Stromer’s freshman year and never came. The same opportunity that might’ve saved Hunter Sallis from the growing pains that eventually led him to Wake Forest. Both players entered the program as top-50 recruits. Stromer got minutes early, but couldn’t keep pace with the needs of Few’s system. Sallis followed a more predictable bench role despite the hype, then transferred when it became clear the staff didn’t view him as the guy around whom to build an offense. Now, Stromer’s at Grand Canyon and Sallis is projected as a second-round pick in the NBA Draft. Zag fans are still left wondering what might’ve been if either had been chosen to—or elected to—play the long game, but the fact that the last guy to do it was Zach Norvell should offer plenty of reasons for optimism if that’s the path Fogle chooses.

Fogle’s got the pedigree, the frame, and the skillset. But whether he has the patience—and whether Gonzaga can afford to slow-play his development without risking another early departure—remains to be seen.

Timing, Talent, and Trajectory

The Zags don’t bring in veteran transfers like Tyon Grant-Foster or Adam Miller to give them bench minutes. They didn’t redshirt Jalen Warley to bury him behind a high upside freshman. They didn’t keep Steele Venters on scholarship through two season-ending injuries just to leave him in storage once he’s healthy. They didn’t let Emmanuel Innocenti play his way to 20+ minutes per night just to put him out to pasture in his second year. Mark Few has proven, above all, that he values experience, maturity, and a reliable developmental arc. And the guys standing in Fogle’s path toward minutes this season have all three. None of them figures as placeholders for the 2025–26 season.

So the question becomes whether Gonzaga brought Fogle in only as a developmental piece—and maybe more crucially, whether Fogle is willing to accept the things that come with that role in the short term. It’s the same tension that defined the exits of Hunter Sallis and Dusty Stromer. Zag fans can’t help but wonder what this year’s team might have looked like with the version of Hunter Sallis who exploded for Wake Forest. They’ll spend this upcoming season contending with a similar question if Stromer goes on to tear it up at Grand Canyon.

Like all players in Mark Few’s system, Davis Fogle will get the chance to compete for his spot, and he may very well emerge as a huge piece of next year’s team. But if he and Goznaga elect to play the long game with Fogle’s development, he has a blueprint and a real shot at something special. The Gonzaga players who came in with a top 100 pedigree, stayed at least three years, and left on their own terms include Josh Perkins, Killian Tillie, Gary Bell Jr., Drew Timme, Anton Watson, Julian Strawther, and Nolan Hickman, guys who didn’t just develop at Gonzaga, they turned themselves into cornerstones. Fogle has that kind of upside. Whether he plays major minutes this year or waits his turn, the path is wide open, and he’ll be given a real shot to earn Few’s trust as soon as he steps on campus. He’s long, skilled, confident, explosive, tenacious, smart, and already further along as a shooter than most freshmen the program’s ever brought in. And if he sticks with it, if he grows inside the system and trusts the arc, he won’t be the first to do it, he’ll be the next one fans talk about for years.