Anton Watson has forged quite a unique career in his time with the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Through five years, he's tallied over 1,300 points, 700 rebounds and 200 steals — the only player in program history to have those numbers — as one of the winningest players to dawn a Bulldogs uniform. Watson is in the top five for games won (127) and games played (144). A consistent winner who always put others before his own stats, Watson had a simple way of how he wanted his career to be remembered by Gonzaga fans after he played his final game in The Kennel on Saturday.
"It comes up a lot, everyone says I'm a true Zag and I feel like that's the best compliment anyone can give me," Watson said. "Just to embody what it means to be a Zag and just the players who came before me, I looked up to them and it's cool I represent that in the city of Spokane. And a lot of kids look up to me, so that's the best compliment I could get."
Here's more of what Watson and Nolan Hickman had to say after the Bulldogs' 94-81 win over Santa Clara:
Watson on his final game at The Kennel:
"It's kinda bittersweet. I've been in Spokane forever it feels like, but this really is my home and everyone treats me like it's their home and, you know, it's just a whole big family it feels like. So yeah, it's gonna be hard to leave but I'm excited for the next step, but we still got a lot of season to finish so I'm excited for that."
Hickman on the team's improvement heading down the stretch of WCC play:
"I just think we're starting to feel ourselves. We're starting to get a real good understanding of what the game plan is with every team. Honestly I feel like we could do even better on the defensive end, but I feel like we've been buckling down on a lot of teams on the defensive end so I feel like that's been helping us in general."
Watson on the upcoming games against San Francisco and Saint Mary's:
"It's gonna be a battle. I think we all know that and it starts off with San Fran and we got to put our hardhats on and it's going to be a battle."
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