Portland State has added a familiar Gonzaga name to its coaching staff, and this one comes with a little bit of everything: family ties, championship experience and a long climb from walk-on to Division I assistant.
Will Graves, the son of longtime Gonzaga and Oregon women’s basketball coach Kelly Graves, is joining the Vikings as an assistant coach, the program announced Tuesday. For Gonzaga, it’s another example of a pipeline that has sent former Bulldogs into coaching roles across the sport.
Graves is part of a growing list. Gonzaga assistants Zach Norvell, Stephen Gentry and Brian Michaelson all played for the Bulldogs, and former Zags such as Rem Bakamus at Texas Tech, Gary Bell Jr at Northern Arizona, Eric McClellan at FAU and Connor Griffin with the Brooklyn Nets have also moved into coaching.
At Gonzaga, Graves was a walk-on who appeared in 39 games from 2019 to 2022. He scored 25 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had two steals, while shooting 7-for-20 from three-point range, good for 35%. He also saw action in 10 games during Gonzaga’s 2020-21 run that ended with a national championship loss to Baylor.
Before landing in Spokane, Graves spent one season at Lane Community College, where he averaged 6.6 points and shot 38% from deep. He later finished at Southern Oregon, earning All-Conference honorable mention after averaging 12.8 points and hitting 37.2% of his threes.
Most recently, Graves spent the last two seasons as a graduate assistant under Todd Golden at Florida. He earned a Masters Degree in Sports Management there and was on the sideline for Florida’s national championship in 2025.
“We are excited to add Will to our coaching staff and program,” Portland State head coach Jase Coburn said, per the school’s press release. “He is coming from a national-championship level program at Florida, and played in one at Gonzaga.
He was highly recommended by Todd Golden and has great ties to the state of Oregon. Will has a very good basketball mind and is an excellent player development coach.
Our players will really enjoy working with him.”
The move also keeps the Graves family connection in focus. Kelly Graves took over at Gonzaga in the 2000-01 season, when Will was just being born, and started his tenure with a 5-23 record before building the Zags into a WCC force.
Gonzaga won 10 straight regular-season titles from 2004 to 2014 under Kelly Graves, who left for Oregon after guiding the program to seven NCAA Tournament appearances and two Sweet 16 trips. His Gonzaga record: 316-136, a .699 winning percentage.
Now Will Graves gets his first crack at Division I coaching in the Big Sky, joining a Portland State team that went 20-11 last season under Coburn and is trying to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009.
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