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Gonzaga nearly left out of recently updated top 25 rankings

Originally posted on Gonzaga Bulldogs on SI
By Andy Patton | Last updated Sep 15, 2025 7:54 PM ET

Gonzaga basketball returns in just under three weeks, with Kraziness in the Kennel set for Saturday, Oct. 4. Roughly one month after that, Gonzaga will begin the season officially, taking on Texas Southern at home on Monday, Nov. 3.

As such, preseason rankings are starting to unfold across the college basketball media landscape, with an updated top 25 coming from the Field of 68, which revealed its rankings in a new collaboration with On3 on Monday.

Gonzaga barely snuck into the updated top 25, coming in at No. 24 overall, just ahead of North Carolina at No. 25.

The Field of 68 crew also projected each top 25 team's starting lineup, which for the Zags included Braeden Smith, Adam Miller, Tyon Grant-Foster, Braden Huff, and Graham Ike.

The crew shared plenty of concern about this Gonzaga roster, pointing out flaws for eight of the team's projected rotation players.

"Braeden Smith has a chance to be good, but being an undersized, pass-first point guard in the Patriot League doesn’t guarantee that he’ll be able to have the same impact at this level," Field of 68 co-founder Rob Dauster wrote. "Mark Few is also betting on Adam Miller (Arizona State) and Tyon Grant-Foster (Grand Canyon) returning to the form we saw out of them in previous seasons."

Smith is making the jump from Colgate to Gonzaga, but that is after spending a full season redshirting and learning the ropes from Ryan Nembhard. Gonzaga's rich history of developing talent in redshirt years is hard to quantify, but not acknowledging it at all is misleading, as it is certainly going to play a big role in how Smith handles the jump to the WCC level.

Gonzaga is absolutely banking on a return to form for Grant-Foster, although they do not need him to score 20 points per game in this system. Plus, Grant-Foster was noticeably dealing with an ankle injury last year with Grand Canyon, so it's not exactly a leap to expect him to be better this year - assuming his waiver is approved and he is able to suit up.

As for Miller, Gonzaga doesn't need him "returning to the form" he had previously; in fact, it's the opposite. Miller is in Spokane to replace Nolan Hickman as a knockdown three-point specialist. Last year at Arizona State, he shot 42.9% from three, while averaging 9.8 points per game. He averaged 12 points in 2023-24 and 11.5 points in 2022-23 at LSU, but shot 30.3% and 31.6% from three, respectively. The Zags would happily take a season similar to Miller's final year at Arizona State — they'd actually prefer it.

"Jalen Warley is talented, but he redshirted last season and has never quite lived up to the potential he has," Dauster continued. "Steele Venters is coming off of back-to-back season-ending injuries. Mario Saint-Supery is adjusting to a new country. Even Braden Huff and Graham Ike have their limitations."

Treating Warley's redshirt as a bad thing feels disingenuous as well, especially when ignoring that his decision to do so stemmed from Tony Bennett's surprise retirement at Virginia 17 days before the 2024-25 season began. Warley chose to come to Gonzaga because of the program's elite player development system, and while he isn't expected to blossom into a high-level scorer — that's not what coach Mark Few and the Zags need him to do.

Saint-Supery is indeed adjusting to a new country, but the framing here is also pretty weak considering how well the 19-year-old performed at the highest levels of EuroLeague basketball as well as with Spain in the 2025 EuroBasket tournament this summer. Plenty of other teams — including multiple in this top 25 — are going to be reliant on international imports, none of which were written off as "adjusting to a new country".

The good news is Gonzaga will get plenty of chances to prove this ranking wrong, including a matchup against No. 23 Creighton on Nov. 11 at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Gonzaga also takes on No. 7 Kentucky in Nashville on Dec. 5, No. 13 UCLA on Dec. 13 in Seattle, and No. 14 Alabama in Las Vegas on Nov. 24 as part of the Player's Era Festival.