How Gonzaga Keeps Winning the Transfer Portal Without Playing the Game

Although it seems like last season just ended, attention among Gonzaga fans has already been fully turned towards the 2025-2026 season. It’s late May, and we’re deep into the offseason calendar. The NBA Draft withdrawal deadline has passed, and the transfer portal is steadily thinning out. Some guys are coming back to school, some guys are staying in the draft, some guys are de-committing and transferring again, some guys are still holding out for the right offer.

But summer workouts are coming fast, and the deadline for roster finalization is imminent. At this stage, most major college basketball programs have already locked in their incoming talent or have simply resorted to throwing NIL money at any available recruit willing to sit for their pitch. Gonzaga, however, has just two confirmed transfers, one high school commit, and plenty of roster spots still available. That’s because Gonzaga is a different kind of school, with a different set of priorities and a different product on offer.

Adam Miller, committed from ASU weeks ago, and GCU transfer Tyon Grant-Foster announced his decision to come to Spokane just yesterday. And that’s it. Just two guys who fit the Gonzaga mold. For fans, it’s been a quiet and perhaps anxiety-inducing spring. For Mark Few and his staff, it’s been business as usual. As we know, Gonzaga moves on its timeline and keeps the behind-the-scenes stuff tightly under wraps. At most, we can baselessly speculate about the recruitment pitch and the NIL packages Few and Co. have been offering to potential transfers, but what remains certain is that the Zags somehow, year after year, keep finding ways to bring in the right dudes and make them shine.

What makes Gonzaga unique is that it looks for players who already know what didn’t work—who’ve been through dysfunction or disappointment, who’ve seen how shallow the game can get when it becomes transactional—and are ready for something more meaningful and resilient.

The way it’s able to attract those guys is through the program’s insistence on grounding everything in the idea of family and the value of a basketball community, not just a team. The word comes up constantly and in just about every interview an incoming recruit gives as to why he chose Gonzaga. It’s because it felt like a family. Gonzaga seeks players who recognize what that word means, why it matters, and how it can provide the context for the next step in their development. In fact, those are the only guys Mark Few really seems interested in.

Julian Strawther said he felt it on his first visit to campus. Corey Kispert called it a family atmosphere he hadn’t seen anywhere else. Ryan Nembhard used the phrase family environment, while Davis Fogle went with family vibe. Braden Huff said it felt like family right away. Malachi Smith described a team with a family feel. Zach Norvell called it a family away from home. R-Jay Barsh, who handles much of Gonzaga’s transfer outreach, says it directly to parents: you can call Gonzaga family.

Of course, not every fan cares about that, nor should they be expected to. Some couldn’t care less whether a player’s family shows up for games at the Kennel or if a dude stays close with his teammates after graduation—they care about buckets, boards, and whether or not a guy can win them six games in March/April. But that’s never been how Gonzaga builds its program. Instead, Gonzaga looks for guys who simply haven’t had access before to what Gonzaga can give them.

By way of example, Adam Miller joins the Zags from Arizona State, where head coach Bobby Hurley spent most of last season publicly unraveling. Turmoil and brokenness defined that team and its locker room. By February, it was clear that “family” was not something ASU had much experience with as a motivating force. Similarly, Grant-Foster played at Grand Canyon University, which often seems less like a university and more like a multi-level marketing scheme with a basketball team attached. Whatever GCU sells, it’s not community, not in the sense that Gonzaga can give. Gonzaga offered both players a clean break and a new start, and these two guys, who had already seen and experienced the alternative, chose to buy in.

For a school of its size, in a town like Spokane, the network of former players who stick around after their playing time is almost absurd. Gary Bell Jr. spent several years on staff. Zach Norvell now helps with recruiting. Adam Morrison does radio color commentary. Rob Sacre runs an excavation company in town. Dan Dickau and Richard Fox handle the home TV broadcasts. Derek Raivio runs the NIL collective. The list goes on and on. Gonzaga absorbs people and keeps them close once their playing days have passed. That’s exactly the pitch being made to every transfer who picks up the phone. You’ll find your game, you’ll find your place, and when your eligibility runs out, your spot in the family won’t.

Grant-Foster is the clearest proof. He was told he might never play again—cardiac arrest, multiple surgeries, months without clarity—and when he returned, he got down to the business of proving he belonged despite all the hardships and uncertainty. GCU gave him a shot, but Gonzaga offers a plan and a culture worthy of the tenacity and fight he’s shown up to this point.

Grant Foster is a wildly resilient athlete, a proven scorer with a relentless motor, someone who understands the value of belonging and who can see beyond the NIL incentives. What his commitment proves is that Gonzaga’s system and pitch still work and still bring in the right type of player. If and when yet another player joins this group, it’ll be for the same reason: because the offer made sense, and because what Gonzaga provides is built to endure.