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Gonzaga Ranked Number One Player Development Program in College Basketball

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Andy Patton | Last updated Apr 14, 2025 12:25 PM ET

Arguably the biggest hallmark of the Mark Few era of Gonzaga basketball is the program's ability to develop talent.

A program that has only landed a handful of five-star recruits has been to the NCAA Tournament every season since 1999, made nine straight Sweet 16's, and twice appeared in the national championship game due in part to the strength of their player development system.

From international stars like Rui Hachimura - who went from complete unknown to All-American in three seasons - to Corey Kispert, an unranked high school prospect who spent four years at Gonzaga and left as a first round pick, the Zags have excelled at getting the most out of their players year in and year out.

A graphic posted by Cobra Stats, using Evan Miyakawa's Bayesian Performance Rating (BPR), proved what many Zag fans already knew: this program is the very best at player development in the entire country.

Using @EvanMiya's Bayesian Performance Rating (BPR) - Gonzaga, Purdue, and Houston have seen the highest average improvement in player BPR from year-to-year since 2015. pic.twitter.com/U12tsq5eTd
— cobra. (@cobrastats) April 12, 2025

Going back to 2015, Gonzaga's average player improvement using BPR year over year has been the highest in college hoops, coming in ahead of Purdue, Houston, Tennessee, and Kentucky to round out the top five.

It's notable that the first four coaches - Mark Few, Matt Painter, Kelvin Sampson, and Rick Barnes - are arguably the four best coaches who have not won a national championship. In fact the only program on this list currently coached by a national champion is No. 14 Kansas and Bill Self - although Kentucky and Villanova both spent large chunks of this time frame being led by champions John Calipari and Jay Wright.

Gonzaga's development success is not only with international and domestic recruits, however, as the program has been elite at turning transfers into high quality contributors as well - including Brandon Clarke, Nigel Williams-Goss, and more recently Ryan Nembhard and Graham Ike.

The Zags have yet to land a transfer this offseason, with multiple targets still in the mix including Rodney Rice, Jacob Dar, Tanner Toolson, and Brendan Hausen, but fans can bet whomever Gonzaga lands will blossom into the best version of themselves in Spokane.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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