Mark Few had the McCarthey Athletic Center buzzing on Saturday, and not just because Gonzaga’s Blue vs. White scrimmage gave fans their first look at this year’s team. The longtime Zags coach was introduced by ESPN’s Sean Farnham as a Hall of Famer for the first time in front of Gonzaga supporters, and the crowd let him hear it.
Then the basketball took over.
Returning sophomore Davis Fogle put on the kind of show that gets remembered around Spokane, pouring in a Kraziness record 30 points. Transfers Isiah Harwell and Xaivian Lee also made strong first impressions, with Harwell scoring 17 points and going 6-8, while Lee finished with nine points, four assists and no turnovers.
Afterward, Few was asked about the players who stood out and also addressed the eligibility situation involving four players on the roster.
On Fogle, Few pointed to the work behind the performance and the way he mixed scoring with playmaking and paint touches. “Yeah he's had a really, really nice offseason and really worked on some stuff and is really having a lot of success getting to his shot.
Today I think he did a nice job creating and sharing it, and a real good balance of getting paint touches. When you're feeling it like that from three, you've got to stay aggressive and hunt it a little bit, and he did a good job of that too.”
Few also made clear where he stands on the NCAA issue. “The best situation is that the NCAA lets these guys play.
It's really unfortunate that they're taking this stance. The classes before all these guys got five, six years, and now with our new rule the classes after get five years, so I'm not sure why we're sticking to targeting this one specific group.
Now that we started school everywhere and rosters are set, it's a really really small number that are out there. With our three guys, they're wonderful guys, they're good students, they're graduates working on their masters.
These are the kind of guys we should have in college basketball.”
He also had praise for Lee, calling out the point guard’s presence and edge. “Yeah, he's experienced, he's got some real toughness about him.
He's a point guard which we were really lacking all summer. He's got some real moxie too.”
And on another player, Few highlighted the defensive upside and athletic feel. “He'll be strong in rim protection.
He runs the floor really well and he's got a nice feel and some skill. He's finding the right time and places to exercise that and attack.”
Gonzaga’s next game is set for Saturday, Oct. 24 in Fayetteville against Arkansas and John Calipari in an exhibition. Time and TV details for that matchup have not yet been released.
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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 🡒]
Gonzaga May Have Turned Last Seasons Biggest Problem Into A Strength
Last seasons perimeter problems were hard to miss for Gonzaga, where a 33.3% three-point mark was the worst of Mark Fews tenure and a clear limiter on an otherwise familiar winning formula. But early signs from a recent scrimmage suggest the Bulldogs may be working their way toward a different identity, with Davis Fogle and transfer Isiah Harwell among the players who looked comfortable from deep.
The larger story is in the roster itself, since Gonzaga has brought in 11 new players and added plenty of perimeter-minded talent. With three-point shooting a priority in the offseason, the Bulldogs appear to be treating last years biggest weakness as a fixable problem rather than a lingering flaw, and the next step is seeing whether that practice-floor promise carries over into the 2026-27 season. [Read more 🡒]