It's the middle of July and a potential preseason top-10 Gonzaga club needs a starting point guard after sophomore Mario Saint-Supery chose to leave the Zags to return to Spain on Saturday and sign a lucrative multi-year deal with EuroLeague club Valencia.
Valencia inked Saint-Supery to a four-year contract worth over $15 million, per CBS Sports' Matt Norlander.
It's a stunning decision that caught Gonzaga off guard and throws a major wrench into its 2026-27 outlook. Saint-Supery averaged 8.6 points, 3.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds while shooting over 40% from 3-point range for the Zags last season. The 6-foot-4 guard was primed to be one of college basketball's top-shelf sophomores, especially since Gonzaga had insulated him with one of the nation's best frontcourts.
Now, the Zags' floor general is gone, and it's slim pickings in the portal.
Gonzaga is expected to tab Frenchman Nathan De Sousa as an internal backfill for Saint-Supery. De Sousa, 23, averaged 10.9 points and 4.9 assists with a sparkling 2.7-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio for Cholet Basket, one of the best clubs in France's top professional league. But the Zags' backcourt depth is now shockingly thin after Saint-Supery's departure combined with German product Jack Kayil, who somewhat unexpectedly kept his name in the 2026 NBA Draft (he went No. 39 to the New York Knicks) instead of suiting up for Gonzaga in 2026-27.
Eight weeks ago, Gonzaga could've feasibly envisioned a potential starting lineup of Saint-Supery, Kayil, Davis Fogle, Braden Huff and Massamba Diop. 40% of that high-upside starting five is off the books.
The pivots
The timing is a brutal double-edged sword. Saint-Supery shared point guard duties with Braeden Smith last season. With Saint-Supery elevating into the unquestioned PG1, Smith chose to hit the portal and landed at Notre Dame. If Gonzaga had an idea that Saint-Supery was legitimately considering heading back to Spain, Smith could have been part of the solution.
There are no easy buttons to press at this point in the cycle, but Mark Few and the Gonzaga coaching staff can now mull a few different options to replenish the backcourt depth. Gonzaga has deep international ties, as usual. It could also consider asking four-star 2027 commit Dooney Johnson, a top-30 prospect according to 247Sports, to reclassify and join Gonzaga a year early, similar to what top-rated 2027 prospect Marcus Spears Jr. just did with Texas last week.
Gonzaga would also be wise to keep a close eye on the court proceedings with current seniors who are currently fighting back against the NCAA's claim to not grandfather the senior class into the new 5-in-5 eligibility model. A Hamilton County judge in Ohio issued a preliminary injunction just last week that clears the way for Xavier forward Filip Borovicanin and new Cincinnati guard MJ Collins to have a fifth year of eligibility. The NCAA is expected to appeal that ruling, though.
Gonzaga's 2026-27 outlook
Even after knee-buckling decisions from Saint-Supery and Kayil, Gonzaga still has one of the highest floors of any club in 2026-27. The Zags will still be the favorite to win the new-look Pac-12 because this front line is outstanding. Huff can score 20 points a night in his sleep, especially with his little 6-foot floater that's basically unblockable. Diop, a prized transfer out of Arizona State, is expected to be a dominant two-way player who can bend defenses with his vertical spacing, his pick-and-pop threat and the burgeoning off-the-deck game. Fogle checks all the boxes of a breakout candidate, and Gonzaga is banking heavily on former five-star guard Isiah Harwell rediscovering his form after a torn ACL in high school hindered his freshman year at Houston.
Veteran Saint Francis transfer Skylar Wicks and youngsters like Frenchman Juwan Ekanga-Ehawa and four-star freshman Luca Foster will also be thrust into bigger roles to round out this second unit.
Gonzaga's braintrust of Few and sharp offensive coordinator Stephen Gentry have more than enough here to build a headache of an offense. Gonzaga has so much size with the Huff (6-10) and Diop (7-1) frontcourt surrounded by big wings like 6-7 Fogle and 6-6 Harwell. Foster and Harwell project to be real-deal off-ball shooters, and the cutting from Fogle and Ekanga-Ehawa should be accentuated in this scheme.
But point guard is such an important variable for a scheme that routinely has one of the elite pick-and-roll offenses in the game. Gonzaga has rated in the 90th percentile or higher in pick-and-roll offense in 15 of the last 18 years. De Sousa has become one of the biggest X factors to decide whether Gonzaga can reach that elite threshold again.
National championships are won in April, but they're constructed in the summer. Gonzaga looked every bit the part of a Tier 1 NCAA Tournament title contender with Kayil and Saint-Supery on the roster. The calculus has changed now and there are 15 million reasons why.
Projected starting lineup
- G Nathan De Sousa
- G Isiah Harwell
- F Davis Fogle
- F Braden Huff
- C Massamba Diop
