Eighteen former Gonzaga players are spread across professional leagues outside the United States in 2025-26, and three of the biggest names in that group are now in EuroLeague action. Nigel Williams-Goss, Filip Petrusev and Mario Saint-Supery all landed with clubs in Europe’s top competition, giving Zag fans a few different threads to follow as the season begins.
Williams-Goss is back at Žalgiris Kaunas, where he enters 2026-27 as the clear lead guard. At 32, he’s the oldest of the trio and the most established.
Žalgiris opened the 2026-27 LKL season today at Neptūnas, and the roster around him looks different after Sylvain Francisco left for Panathinaikos following an All-EuroLeague First Team season in which he averaged 16.5 points and 6.5 assists. That’s a major hole, but Žalgiris added Jonas Valanciunas, who spent 14 years in the NBA before Denver waived him, and he flashed in preseason with 14 points and 9 rebounds against Juventus.
Williams-Goss handled that same game with 6 points and 6 assists, a tidy line for a veteran point guard easing into a long season.
The early schedule is no joke. Žalgiris opens EuroLeague play Thursday at Crvena Zvezda and then hosts Olympiacos on September 29.
Williams-Goss has already built a résumé full of trophies overseas, including a EuroLeague title with Real Madrid in 2023 and the Lithuanian league crown with Žalgiris last spring. He’s also been to four straight Final Fours before Fenerbahçe knocked them out in the quarterfinals in May.
Health remains the swing factor after three soft-tissue injuries interrupted his first season in Kaunas, but when he’s right, Žalgiris has the kind of foundation that can push further than last year.
Petrusev’s first season in Dubai was a grind. He was 26 and said his knee felt like it belonged to a 36-year-old, yet he still played all 38 EuroLeague games, averaged 11.6 points and 4.8 rebounds, and helped Dubai Basketball win the ABA League title in just its second year of existence.
By the finish line he was playing through cartilage damage and two bone edemas in his right knee, and he said this summer there was barely any cartilage left in certain spots. Even so, he started and scored 7 points in last weekend’s EuroLeague SuperCup third-place game against Fenerbahçe.
Now he’s back for year two as the frontcourt anchor on a deeper Dubai roster. The club changed coaches, moving from Golemac in April to Xavi Pascual, and added former Virginia star Mamadi Diakite alongside Petrusev up front.
He already has a EuroLeague ring from his season at Anadolu Efes and an Olympic bronze from Paris with Serbia, and he told Italian media this week that the preparation has been ideal and that the only way to grow is to test yourself against the best. Dubai opens EuroLeague play Thursday at home against Real Madrid, and the question is whether his knee can hold up over the full run.
Saint-Supery’s path to Valencia came together fast. He left Gonzaga after one season and, just two days after appearing at the Domantas Sabonis Strength and Conditioning Center dedication ceremony, announced a four-year, $15 million deal with Valencia Basket.
He was back in Spain later that week. The 20-year-old told the Spanish press that the EuroLeague is “the best league in the world after the NBA,” and Valencia has him under contract through June 30, 2030.
He arrives in a very different situation from the one Valencia had last season. The club made the EuroLeague Final Four and won the Liga ACB, but this summer Jean Montero left for Olympiacos and Sergio de Larrea went 25th in the NBA Draft. That leaves Saint-Supery as part of the replacement plan, behind 35-year-old Nikola Mirotic on a roster that looks considerably weaker than last year’s.
For fans wanting to keep tabs on the Gonzaga connection, the calendar offers six head-to-head matchups involving the three former Zags. Williams-Goss and Petrusev meet on December 4 in Kaunas and April 7 in Dubai.
Williams-Goss and Saint-Supery play on December 23 in Kaunas and March 4 in Valencia. Petrusev and Saint-Supery face each other December 15 in Valencia and March 10 in Dubai.
December 23 stands out in particular, with Williams-Goss going against one of Gonzaga’s most beloved former guards in Lithuania.