Gonzaga spent last season living with one glaring flaw. Even with a 31-4 record and a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Zags never fully solved their issues from deep, finishing at 33.3% from three - 212th nationally per KenPom and the worst full-season mark of Mark Few’s 27-year run in Spokane.
That problem looked a lot smaller at Kraziness in the Kennel.
In Saturday’s Blue vs. White scrimmage, Gonzaga torched the rim from outside and did it with a cast of new and returning faces that suggests this could be a very different team on the perimeter in 2026-27. The Zags shot 18-32 from three as a group, a blistering 56.3%, and the biggest spark came from Davis Fogle.
The 6-foot-7 wing was the clear standout, scoring a Kraziness-record 30 points in just 20 minutes while shooting 11-15 overall and 6-7 from three. Coming into his sophomore season, Fogle looks ready for a much larger role, with a starting spot on the wing and the kind of perimeter shot-making Gonzaga badly needed a year ago.
He shot 35% from deep last season on only 1.3 attempts per game, and after Saturday’s display, there’s real reason to think he could climb into the 40% range. If that happens while his volume rises too, it changes the math for the entire offense and opens the floor for Braden Huff and Massamba Diop on the block.
Huff is one of only two players returning who saw game action last season, and while he’s a career 32.2% three-point shooter on 1.3 attempts per game, his perimeter game still projects more as a work in progress than a featured weapon. Fogle is the one who can tilt the whole equation.
Gonzaga’s transfer haul added more firepower. Houston transfer Isiah Harwell, Florida transfer Xaivian Lee and Florida State transfer Chauncey Wiggins all flashed in the scrimmage, with Harwell going 4-5, Lee 3-6 and Wiggins 2-5 from beyond the arc.
Harwell, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, is a particularly important piece. He shot just 27.1% from three as a freshman at Houston, and his outside shot was never the main attraction even as a McDonald’s All-American.
But Saturday offered a glimpse of the work he’s put in this offseason in Spokane, and if that shot keeps falling, he could lock down a rotation spot and maybe even a starting role in 2026-27.
Lee and Wiggins come with their own questions. Both are eligibility question marks with one month left before the season starts, but both looked comfortable from deep.
Lee hit only 29.2% from three last year at Florida, though he was more reliable at Princeton before that, and a return to that form would be a major boost. Wiggins, meanwhile, brings a different kind of threat altogether.
He made 39% of his threes last season while taking 6.0 per game, giving Gonzaga a 6-foot-11 stretch option who can pull defenses away from the paint in the new-look Pac-12.
There may have been one more shooter in the mix too. After the scrimmage, Few said Javon Bennett - who sat out with a shoulder injury - has been the most impressive outside shooter on the team this offseason. If he’s eligible, he could give the Zags another proven threat from distance.
Nobody is expecting Gonzaga to live at 58% from three, and Fogle and Harwell probably won’t combine for lines like 10-12 very often. But the message from Saturday was loud enough: this roster was built with shooting in mind, and early signs suggest that emphasis is already paying off.
The next look at the Zags comes Saturday, Oct. 24, when they travel to face John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks in an exhibition game. The time and TV details will be announced later.
In Other News...
Gonzaga Fans Are Saying Goodbye To One Of Mark Fews Best Guards
Kevin Pangos, one of the most accomplished point guards in Gonzaga history, announced his retirement from professional basketball in an Instagram post, bringing a long international career to a close. For Bulldogs fans, it is another reminder of how much Pangos meant to the program during the Mark Few era, when he helped set the standard for skill, poise and winning at the point.
Pangos went on to build a decorated career overseas after leaving Spokane, collecting honors with multiple international teams before reaching the NBA with the Cleveland Cavaliers at age 28. He still owns several Gonzaga records, and his rsum has always made him stand out as one of the programs most reliable and productive guards, even as his career traveled far beyond the Kennel. [Read more 🡒]