Life After Gonzaga: Overseas Edition – Part 2

Yesterday, we kicked off our multi-part series tracking the far-flung, still-active pro careers of former Gonzaga players. Whether it’s a veteran lighting up a top European league, a journeyman grinding through short-term contracts, or a recent grad trying to find their footing, one thing’s clear: Zags are still getting buckets all over the map.

Part 1 featured Kyle Wiltjer, Rasir Bolton, Geno Crandall, Filip Petrusev, and Joel Ayayi—five guys, five totally different arcs. Today, we continue with another batch of fan favorites, from floor generals still orchestrating offenses to stretch bigs finding second winds in Spain. And there’s even more coming down the pike in Part 3. Stay tuned!

Martynas Arlauskas – CBet Jonava (Lithuania, LKL)

Four years after leaving Gonzaga, Martynas Arlauskas is back home in Lithuania and settling into a steady pro career. Now with CBet Jonava in the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL), he’s averaging 5.5 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game, shooting 43% from the field and 30.4% from three off the bench for a Jonava team currently 19–17 and fifth in the league. It’s not a starring role, but he’s found his footing in one of Europe’s most respected domestic leagues.

Before that, Arlauskas spent two seasons with Pieno žvaigždės Pasvalys, after starting his pro journey with Zalgiris Kaunas, where he first built a name for himself as a high-upside wing with international experience. He came to Gonzaga in 2019 as a promising get—a top-50 international prospect, Lithuanian youth national team product, and long, athletic perimeter player with real potential. After three seasons in Spokane and 157 total minutes played, he chose to head home rather than stick out a senior year in a crowded rotation. The timing made sense. So did the move.

He might not have become a household name at Gonzaga, but Arlauskas was always easy to root for. Fans loved him. Teammates clearly did too. And with the way Randy Bennett keeps raiding Lithuania, who knows—maybe Arlauskas finds his way back to the WCC one day, just wearing the wrong shade of blue.

Josh Perkins – Obregón (CIBACOPA, Mexico)

Josh Perkins might need a full passport insert at this point. Since going undrafted in 2019, he’s racked up contracts in Italy, Israel, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, and now Mexico—plus G League stints in Greensboro and Texas. As of this season, he’s running the show for Obregón in the Mexican league, averaging over five assists per game and connecting on 37% of his threes. On June 16, he dropped a season-high 23 points against the Jalisco Astros. Six years into his pro career, Perkins is still clocking starter’s minutes and orchestrating offenses in every corner of the map.

At Gonzaga, Perkins was the embodiment of the high-variance point guard. When he was good, he was electric—hitting pull-up threes, carving up defenses, and setting the tempo. When he was off, he looked like a middle school AAU ballhog with a green light and no rearview mirror. There has perhaps not been a more divisive Zag in all of Mark Few’s tenure. Once Nigel Williams-Goss arrived to stabilize the backcourt and absorb the heaviest ball-handling load, Perkins began to evolve—playing off the ball more, picking his spots, and leaning into the rhythm of the game. From that point on, he flourished as both a scorer and distributor. Over five seasons and 153 appearances, he left as Gonzaga’s all-time assists leader (712), a five-time WCC champion, and a critical piece of multiple deep tournament runs—including a 13-point, 3-assist showing in the 2017 national title game (easy to forget that Perkins was Gonzaga’s second leading scorer by just two points behind NWG in a game where just about nothing went right for the Zags).

If you’re looking for a through line in Perkins’ post-Gonzaga story, it’s this: he’s still making plays. Whether it’s Italy, Israel, or inland Mexico, he’s kept the ball moving and found a way to stay on the floor. The numbers shift from season to season, the continent changes every few months, but Perkins always brings tempo, swagger, and the exact sort of irrational confidence that made him unforgettable in Spokane.

Kevin Pangos – Napoli Basket (LBA)

If Josh Perkins was Gonzaga’s most polarizing point guard, Kevin Pangos might’ve been its most universally beloved. No drama. No debates. Just four years of rock-solid basketball, a WCC Player of the Year award, and a school-record 142 starts. Pangos has gone down as one of the greatest Zags of the Few era.

In his second game as a freshman, he dropped 33 points and tied a program record with nine threes against Washington State. He left Gonzaga as the program’s all-time leader in made threes (313), but it wasn’t the shooting alone that made him special—it was how completely he took ownership of the offense. Few point guards in school history have done more with less flash.

Now in his ninth professional season, Pangos is still carving up defenses, this time in Italy’s top division with Napoli Basket. He’s averaging 10 points and 6.7 assists per game in 2024–25, despite posting the lowest three-point percentage (31.4%) of his pro career. His shot may be streakier, but his playmaking remains elite.

Since leaving Spokane in 2015, Pangos has played for EuroLeague powers like Zalgiris, Barcelona, and Zenit. He’s made two All-EuroLeague teams—including First Team honors in 2021—and helped lead Zalgiris to its first Final Four in two decades. He had a short stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2021–22 and a chaotic contract with CSKA Moscow that fell apart when war broke out in Ukraine. Still, whether in Spain, Lithuania, Russia, or Italy, Pangos has kept finding ways to thrive.

A decade after arriving in Spokane from Canada, Pangos is still doing what he always did: running the show, setting the tempo, and earning the trust of every coach smart enough to give him the keys. As a side note, if you run into Kevin Pangos outside of Jack and Dan’s in 2019, he will take a picture with you.

Killian Tillie – Unicaja Málaga (Liga ACB)

Now in his fifth year as a pro, Killian Tillie is back on European soil and catching fire from deep. Playing for Unicaja Málaga in Spain’s Liga ACB, Tillie is averaging 8.3 points per game in under 15 minutes of action—while somehow hitting 53.2% of his threes. The volume may be modest, but the efficiency is outrageous. He’s quietly become one of the deadliest stretch bigs in Europe.

It’s a satisfying bounce-back after a stop-start NBA run. Tillie went undrafted in 2020 but signed a two-way contract with the Memphis Grizzlies and later converted it to a full standard deal in 2022. He made 54 NBA appearances—36 of them in the 2021–22 season—flashing the pick-and-pop skills and floor-spacing instincts that had defined his game in college. But persistent injuries derailed his trajectory. He was waived before the 2022–23 season and didn’t resurface in a professional game for nearly two years.

That changed last summer when he signed with Unicaja. Healthy again and back in rhythm, Tillie’s jumper has never looked smoother, and his feel for the game—on both ends—remains elite. The court still tilts in his favor when he’s on the floor.

He remains one of the most beloved Zags of the Few era, not just for his goofy charm and on-court polish, but for the enduring what-if? that trails his name. When Tillie was ruled out with a hip injury just before Gonzaga’s 2018 Sweet 16 game against Florida State, the team’s title hopes all but evaporated. That group had Final Four potential, but without Tillie, they looked lost. His absence that night still ranks among the most significant in program history.

And yes—because it was mentioned in every single Gonzaga broadcast of his career—his dad is the head coach of the French national volleyball team. As a side note: if you run into Killian Tillie at the Best Buy in North Spokane in 2021, he will take a picture with you.