Gonzaga Bulldogs guard Geno Crandall (0). James Snook-Imagn Images

Former Gonzaga guard lands new deal with Portuguese club Benfica

Originally posted on Gonzaga Bulldogs on SI
By Andy Patton | Last updated Aug 17, 2025 2:30 PM ET

Geno Crandall is on the move once again.

The former Gonzaga Bulldogs guard inked a new deal with S.L. Benfica in Lisbon, Portugal, for the upcoming season, as announced by his agency TAA Sports on Sunday morning.

Crandall has travelled extensively in his professional career since finishing his time in college at Gonzaga in the 2018-19 season. The 6'3 point guard — who starred at North Dakota for three years before transferring to Gonzaga — has made stops in the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and Germany over the past six seasons.

First up was Svitavy in the Czech Republic, where Crandall averaged nearly 14 points and four assists in 28 games. From there, the veteran guard landed in Britain with the Leicester Riders, where he won back-to-back MVP Awards in the British Basketball League. He averaged 15.9 points, 7.8 assists, and 5.7 rebounds in his first year and followed that up with 13.1 points, 7.0 assists, and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 38.7% from three in 2021-22.

That led Crandall over to Germany, where he played for BG Gottingen in 2022-23 alongside another former Zag in Mathis Monninghoff, although they were in Spokane nearly an entire decade apart from each other. Crandall appeared in 30 games with the German club, averaging 12 points and 4.4 assists.

Crandall remained in Germany for the next two seasons, both with EWE Baskets Oldenburg. Last year, the 6'3 guard averaged 13.5 points and 7.5 assists, although his club finished just ninth in the Basketball Bundesliga League.

Now he'll get a chance to compete in Portugal for a club in Benefica that has won a whopping 31 Portuguese League titles, including four in a row dating back to 2021. He won't be the first Gonzaga guard to play for the Lisbon-based club after Derek Raivio suited up for them to close out his professional career in 2016-17.

Crandall appeared in 28 games for Gonzaga back in the 2018-19 season, serving as a backup point guard to Josh Perkins on a Zag roster that went 33-4 and a perfect 16-0 in the WCC, earning a No. 1 seed and advancing to the Elite Eight before falling 75-69 to Texas Tech ahead of the Final Four.

Crandall played 18.4 minutes a night and averaged 5.0 points, 2.2 assists, and 1.1 steals per game, continuing a trend of valuable role-playing graduate transfers under coach Mark Few that previously included Jordan Mathews and Byron Wesley and added Ryan Woolridge and Admon Gilder the following year.