Erick Doxey photo
Getting to watch Khalif Battle in action was one of the bright spots for Zags fans this season.
The Los Angels Dodgers have made the playoffs 12 straight times, so now any season that the superteam doesn't win the World Series is considered a failure. Meanwhile, Seattle Mariners fans would lose their collective minds if they simply made the playoffs two straight seasons... because that has happened once in the team's 48 seasons — and that was 24 years ago.
Gonzaga unquestionably had a down season in 2024-25 based on the sky-high expectations the Zags have earned over the past two decades. While probably around 340 of the 352 schools that play NCAA Division I basketball would do horrible things to go 26-9, win their conference tournament, win an NCAA Tournament game and push a 1-seed like Houston to the brink in the second round, that level of success leaves a slightly disappointing taste in the mouths of (the self-admittedly spoiled) Zags diehards. After making nine straight Sweet 16 appearances, Gonzaga has to watch the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament from the sidelines this time around.
But for anyone who's watched this collection of Bulldogs, an early exit shouldn't come as a surprise. Yes, the team was loaded with talent and when firing on all cylinders looked as good as almost any team in the country. The thing is those times firing on all cylinders were vanishingly rare compared to other recent GU squads.
To simplify things: The 2024-25 Gonzaga Bulldogs never fully clicked.
The most basic illustration of this fact is that head coach Mark Few was still tinkering with lineups into the final games of the year. Anyone who has watched Few's teams over the years know that shaking up the lineup is far from his modus operandi, as he often comes into the season with a good handle on what he wants from his roster and sticks with it even in rough patches. This year saw five different players — Ben Gregg, Michael Ajayi, Braden Huff, Emmanuel Innocenti and Dusty Stromer — get starts alongside the core of Ryan Nembhard, Graham Ike, Nolan Hickman and Khalif Battle.
Of those rotational starters, only Huff — who somehow didn't start until the final three games of the year — was a consistent impact player throughout the entire year. Innocenti basically didn't play until February, Gregg was mostly a serviceable minutes eater, and Ajayi and Stromer both struggled and often looked lost in their limited minutes throughout the season.
Even those bemoaning how NIL and transfer rules are shaking up the game can't blame that boogeyman for the Zags slightly underachieving this season, as this team brought back all their non-graduating players and landed top-end transfers in Battle and Ajayi. These Zags has the most stability of any of the preseason national title contenders, but that often didn't translate to continuity and chemistry on the court.
While the advanced metrics still loved this Gonzaga team, they often didn't pass the eye test. Not that it wasn't a good team, but fans know what Few's teams look like when the players and staff are really all on the same page and things are humming like a pristine engine. But both offensively and defensively, fans rarely knew what they'd get from the Zags on any given night.
These Zags could drop 101 points in a dominant win over Baylor to start the season or they could struggle to score 60 points in losses to UCLA and St. Mary's.
Theses Zags could give up 103 points and 18 three-pointers in an embarrassing home loss to Santa Clara or they could totally lock down a far more talented St. Mary's team and hold them to zero 3s in the West Coast Conference Tournament Championship Game.
Make no mistake, there were plenty of things to fondly remember about the 2024-25 Gonzaga season. The players hardly need to hang their heads in shame or any nonsense like that. We can still look back warmly on the domination that was that opening night win over Baylor in front of an absolutely crazed Spokane Arena crowd. We should celebrate the passing wizardry that Nembhard displayed on a nightly basis as he crushed the school and WCC single season assist records. We can give Battle his flowers for being one of the most dynamic, swaggy and naturally cool players the Bulldogs have had in recent memory. We can still feel bliss about getting payback against the Gales in the WCC Tournament. There's plenty of good to be found.
But because of the immense level of talent Mark Few and Co. had in Spokane this year, it's probably a season that will be defined by the close calls and what-ifs.
What if the Zags hadn't choked down the stretch against West Virginia and Kentucky? The constant chatter around the team's lack of high profile non-conference games would've changed the narrative.
What if Mark Few had decided to start Branden Huff alongside Graham Ike all year? Was having Huff as a spark coming off the bench really worth not having a guy who was clearly one of the five best players on this team get less minutes? Would it have prevented the Zags from coming out slow in so many games?
What if the team had figured out a role for Michael Ajayi? How did one of the best players in the WCC last season at Pepperdine because basically irrelevant for GU? Was the spotlight too bright for him and did early struggles just snowball mentally for him? What was the role the Few pitched Ajayi to get him to come to Spokane and why did it never materialize?
What if the team had started fellow senior Battle on Senior Night versus St. Mary's instead of Joe Few? The team won the game after the first two minutes when Joe was on the floor, after starting down 9-0 with the coach's son in. Another win versus a top opponent like St. Mary's probably would've bumped the Zags up to a 7-seed, vastly increasing their odds of still being alive in the Sweet 16 at this very moment.
What if Mark Few had put on the defensive press a bit earlier in the matchup against Houston last Saturday? It's always impressive how disruptive Gonzaga's press every single year, but Few always seems hesitant to pull the trigger on it until the game is just a bit too far out of reach. Houston may have snuck away with an 81-76 win, but they were so tight down the stretch that added pressure earlier when the defense was floundering could've helped turn the tide with more time remaining.
But, alas, we don't get do-overs in sports to sort out what these what-ifs could've became.
The 2024-25 Gonzaga Bulldogs were still winners, even if we hoped for more.
