Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau provides an update on Gonzaga's activity in the transfer portal and notable alums competing in the 2024 NBA Playoffs
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00:00 What's happening, everybody? Christian Pedersen, joined by Dan Dickow. As we trudge on through
00:04 the offseason, we welcome you back to another episode of the Gonzaga Nation podcast. Dan,
00:09 there's actual college basketball to talk about, so I promise you this will be an episode
00:13 where I don't catch you off guard and try and pin you into a box where you have to say
00:17 something that's going to somehow upset somebody in the Gonzaga fandom. I'm done doing that
00:21 until next episode. We've got some college basketball. We got a little bit of zags in
00:26 the pros to talk about, which is always fun. The transfer portal, though, is the big thing.
00:30 It has impacted Gonzaga now for the first time this offseason. Plus, there's been some
00:34 other, I think, not even kind of surprising, really surprising, dare I say, even shocking
00:40 transfers happening in the rest of the WCC. So Dan, thank you again, as always, for joining
00:44 us. Let's start with the Gonzaga transfer news and let's move on to the rest of the conference
00:48 from there. Well, Gonzaga really hasn't been impacted like so many other schools in the
00:54 WCC and across college basketball with transfers, but they did have their first player put his
01:00 name in the portal. If you followed the news closely over the last 48 hours on Twitter,
01:07 I'm sure you've seen it. I believe Cole Boersman, our esteemed journalist, got a story up quickly,
01:15 but it's nothing to be overly concerned about, overly worried about. Colby Brooks, who is
01:24 actually entering as a grad transfer, graduated Gonzaga in three years, played for two, 21
01:32 game appearances. He scored 28 total points. So he's obviously clearly not a player that
01:40 impacted the game in regards to winning and losing on the floor, but he was a tremendous
01:46 locker room guy. He was a tremendous practice player, tremendous teammate, really, from
01:52 what I heard, added a lot to the culture of the program, really was a great addition for
01:58 the couple of years that he was here. Now, you know, I mentioned it's not that big of
02:02 a loss in regards to the statistics. I do mention he did add some things off the court,
02:07 but I think it goes to show, you know, there comes a point in time with pretty much every
02:12 player is you want to play. Colby was a really good high school player out of the Los Angeles
02:17 area, went to Loyola High School, was all league, played in a really good league. I'm
02:24 sure he had plenty of offers to play maybe Division II basketball. He could have walked
02:30 on in a number of Division I programs, chose Gonzaga, and now that he's got his degree,
02:36 you know, he wants to go play somewhere his final couple years. I believe he'll have two
02:39 years left to play. So I imagine, you know, he will go closer to home. Now, I don't know
02:47 this for a fact because I haven't spoken with him, but I would imagine he probably tries
02:51 to get somewhere down in Southern California closer to home where maybe there's a big West
02:55 school. Maybe there's, you know, a Division II school that would be able to offer a fair
03:03 amount of playing time to wrap up his college career. But for now, that's the only, you
03:10 know, Gonzaga player in the portal. You know, and I think it's so much what gets lost in
03:16 these transfer portal recruiting rankings of classes is, you know, Arkansas might be
03:23 getting X amount of guys and really high ratings. What about recruiting the guys that are currently
03:29 on your roster and having continuity? I think there's a lot to be said for that. You know,
03:36 Gonzaga has kind of avoided, you know, the big over roster overhauls over the years.
03:42 Yeah, they've added transfers here and there, especially in the grad transfer era. Byron
03:47 Wesley, Geno Crandall, Aaron Cook, Jordan Matthews, a couple names that quickly come
03:52 to mind. But, you know, they never really had to do the seven, eight, nine player roster
03:57 overhaul. And I would imagine the focus is guys on our roster are better than what we
04:06 could go get in the portal. So why waste our time dancing around too much? Yeah, they did
04:12 add the one player, Michael Ajayi from Pepperdine, but that was such a quick recruiting. I don't
04:17 think either side was interested in having something that was drawn out. You know, there
04:25 was a good fit for both. Now he is testing the NBA waters because he's a talented prospect,
04:31 but I would expect to see him in a Gonzaga uniform. So there you have it. There is the
04:36 latest update. But the biggest thing right now is for Gonzaga staff to just continue
04:41 to recruit the players that are currently on the roster, because I don't see any ton
04:45 of difference makers that would supplant who's currently on the roster.
04:53 Yeah, you you obviously have significantly more Gonzaga knowledge than I do and intimacy
05:01 with the program. But I would say that for my time being around it, the biggest overhaul
05:06 of an offseason has been more symbolically like it's been replacing Chet, replacing a
05:11 Timmy or something like that. I don't think that there's ever been like a wholesale. Hey,
05:17 we got to go get six guys. So I would be curious to know what even is the most starters or
05:24 however you want to phase or however you want to say it. Like what is the head that like
05:27 the largest number of players that coach few has had to ever replace at any point in his
05:31 career, let alone in the transfer portal era or not, because it certainly does seem kind
05:36 of like you said, like it's never been something where Gonzaga has to go out and be like, all
05:40 right, we need we need a whole we need to scrap what we did last year and start all
05:44 over like some. Yeah, I think really, I mean, last year they had to replace Drew Timmy,
05:52 Julian Strother and Roger Bolton, three three starters right there are one of the biggest
05:57 overhauls. And I think, you know, because Gonzaga and the staff has has such a good
06:03 kind of pulse on how they want to build rosters. They've got freshmen. They've got, you know,
06:10 second year, third year guys that are waiting to break out like like a like a Ben Gregg.
06:15 And then they've got experienced guys that typically have been in the program, all Anton
06:21 Watson a season ago. So I think that's a major benefit to having a staff that has a philosophy
06:29 that's been ingrained in each of them and that they adhere to is, you know, you got
06:34 to have roster balance, you got to have roster flexibility, you want to have roster depth.
06:40 Some years you have it more so than others. But I think the you know, the balance is a
06:45 key thing that is overlooked by many coaching staffs, because you got to have young freshmen
06:51 are good enough or driven enough to want to improve and succeed. But they got to mesh
06:57 well with the older guys that maybe have set are setting the tone for the culture and how
07:01 the program wants to to practice, to play, to travel, to act, to be, you know, in the
07:07 community. And then you need obviously the talent there, where if those guys maybe need
07:14 a boost from the transfer portal, you go get it. But Gonzaga has always done such a good
07:19 job of mixing and matching and balancing out, you know, the roster in the makeup of it.
07:28 When it seems like it's also a credit to coach few in his staff and their adaptability is
07:32 maybe the right word there, because we talked about Calipari the last couple weeks, committing
07:38 to the one and done thing committing to the freshman phenom and how that was that made
07:42 him the biggest thing in college basketball for a run. But it now makes him somewhat of
07:48 an outdated dinosaur. I don't know if it's maybe fully that but like, he no longer had
07:52 like immense, immense, like top of the world success because he stuck with what worked
07:56 for him in a certain era. And so for coach few to ebb and flow and not seemingly have
08:03 to right now commit to like, these are my guys, we're just going to retain them or these
08:07 are my transfers, we're going to just, you know, bring in mercenaries every year. But
08:10 like you said, have that nice balance. Seems like again, it just keeps reinforcing the
08:14 fact that he's one of the best coaches around.
08:16 Yeah, without a doubt. And you know, you mentioned and we talked about the Calipari philosophy
08:22 in you know, obviously, if you can get a talented freshman that you think fits your program,
08:29 you recruit them, right. But what you're seeing is, you know, even the quote unquote, best
08:35 freshmen aren't necessarily playing major minutes or starting on teams that make deep
08:41 NCAA tournament runs. The only one that quickly comes to mind for this year would be Stefan
08:46 Castle at UConn. You know, and a lot of the reason that he had the success he had was
08:54 because he bought it into his role. Like he understood early in the season, like, hey,
08:58 if I'm going to play, I'm going to earn it on the defensive end. I'm going to be a transition
09:02 guy, I'm going to be a cutter. And then as I get comfortable, the college game and the
09:08 other guys are focused on more, maybe I can create some opportunities in different ways.
09:13 And he showed it. I mean, he averaged nearly 30 points a game on a national title team.
09:18 He's going to go to the NBA as a one and done. And not just a one and done on projected potential.
09:24 Like, he was a legitimate starter, difference maker on the national title team. You're not
09:32 going to see that as much as maybe you did in years past. Because, you know, teams want
09:38 experience, experience wins in the NCAA tournament. And there's going to be, you know, I think
09:44 there's going to be fewer of those freshmen that play major minutes on teams that go deep
09:50 in the NCAA tournament. So that can, again, become the big part of cultivating your roster,
09:55 balancing out your roster, you know, to kind of have success with the ups and downs of
10:02 not just a season, but a cycle of a couple seasons. So that if maybe you don't hit it
10:08 rich, so to speak, in a transfer portal, you can kind of cover up some of those lows. And
10:13 I think that's one of the most impressive things for Gonzaga in regards to, you know,
10:17 25 straight years in the NCAA tournament, I think it is now in nine straight sweet 16s.
10:22 Those lows have been covered up pretty darn well. And yes, there's been a lot of highs,
10:26 the only high that's left to climb is winning that national title. But, you know, balancing
10:31 out the roster and looking in those ways is big.
10:34 I want to talk some NBA with you little zags in the NBA, but is there anything else headline
10:40 wise that we need to talk about transfer portal in the WCC?
10:43 Well, I think the big one that happened last week was was pretty shocking. And I think
10:49 this has to do with NIL money and opportunities that are out there. That's Aiden Mahaney,
10:54 with St. Mary's put his name in the portal. And he's getting a lot of interest some of
10:58 the early schools that I saw that showed interest are your Dukes, you know, your Alabamas, your
11:06 I think Baylor, I saw on the list, Ohio State, I think I saw on the list, Michigan. You know,
11:13 I think I saw Arizona, I'm not 100% sure. But, you know, it kind of shows you the challenge
11:20 that a lot of smaller, budgeted schools and programs are going to have if they have a
11:25 young breakout star like Aiden Mahaney, you know, kind of really look and search and see,
11:34 hey, I'm making X at my current school. But if I were to do this at a bigger school, I
11:41 might make 5678 10 times X. And so I'm sure that was a big, big thing. Part of what he
11:48 was looking at. The other thing might be was, and I if this is what he's looking at, and
11:53 again, I don't know, I think it would be wrong. And the fact that he might be looking, you
11:57 know, to try to prepare himself to play in the NBA. You know, I think he's a player who's
12:02 going to have a legitimate chance. But St. Mary's has produced NBA guards over the, you
12:08 know, 15 years, Della Vadova, Patty Mills, you know, and then some other guys have had
12:14 cracks at it, Jordan Ford, you know, so I think, you know, if that, that one was a shocker,
12:22 that one was interesting, especially because the you know, you look at the family tradition,
12:27 going back or the family history with Aiden Mahaney, growing up with Brandy Bennett's
12:33 son playing youth basketball, playing high school basketball, all those things together.
12:39 And, you know, that's a bit of a shocker. But in this day and age of college basketball,
12:44 really nothing's a shock.
12:47 Other than I somehow was trying to make a Wichita State joke there, because they're
12:54 the shockers, but couldn't pull up the college name fast enough there. Yeah, man, I'm torn
13:01 because when this whole NIL concept was coming out, four or five years ago, really being
13:09 introduced to the national narrative, there was so much talk about how this is just going
13:13 to destroy the traditions of college basketball. And it seems like. Largely, it hasn't. But
13:21 then every now and then there's a kid like this where you're like, OK, well, like all
13:25 of the all of the boxes that you checked on that knows Randy Bennett tradition at this
13:29 college, like but money, but like there has to be some other opportunity that he'll land
13:34 and we'll go, OK, I guess that makes sense.
13:37 But yeah, it's interesting how the allure of cash has not entirely eroded the game overnight
13:44 the way that a lot of initial people of the purist, oh, it's it's amateur athletics. You
13:48 know, bless it. Let's not ruin it with this. So I will be curious to see where he ends
13:53 up. And like you said, what that trajectory is, because obviously he would have wound
13:57 up with a shot at the NBA anyway. But, you know, we're not in those camps. We don't know
14:02 everything that's going on there. Any other names in the portal in the WC?
14:07 Those are the ones that are. That's the biggest one that jumps out to me in regards to WCC.
14:12 You know, I do know, you know, the the portal for undergraduates, excuse me, to put their
14:17 name in ends in a week or so. So there's already, I think, eighteen hundred names in the list,
14:25 give or take a little bit. But it'll probably approach close to 2000. And when you think
14:31 about that, that is an enormous amount of movement in college basketball. I was looking
14:38 at either it was on three this morning just to kind of better gauge how many players in
14:44 the portal and who's going where. And you're seeing a ton of lateral transfers, right?
14:51 Like so similar leagues, school, league to league. And it makes you wonder, like, OK,
14:57 is there is there is there a connection there? Is it moving closer to home? Is it an assistant
15:03 coach at a new school? You know, they had recruited a player before. Is it an NIL bonus
15:13 or a boost in what they had made the year before? Is the new coach seeing something
15:18 maybe that the current coach at that player the school is transferring away from isn't
15:24 seeing or didn't see to allow him to maybe play it up to his level of potential? So many
15:30 things that really can't be addressed. I think at the end of the day, I get it. College athletes
15:36 are going to transfer. But I think at the end of the day, so many of these players,
15:41 if they would just focus on the task at hand day to day, week by week, month by month,
15:47 a lot of their frustrations and mainly it comes down to playing time for players would
15:54 be appeased, would be taken care of. You know, for the most part, your NIL money is going
16:02 to be similar if you're transferring straight across. Now, if you have an unbelievable season
16:07 and you go from, say, a low major or mid major up to a power school, yeah, that's that's
16:12 going to change things. But what if you like, you know, what if you were to take Dalton
16:21 Connect as a perfect example of that? That's one thing. But then, you know, say you were
16:25 a a mid major that's focused the focus of your offensive attack and you're able to play
16:32 to your strengths and really showcase yourself, maybe for the NBA, but if not, to be able
16:38 to play overseas and you're averaging 15, 16 a game, six rebounds a game and whatnot,
16:43 as opposed to going to a power five where now maybe you're averaging five and three
16:48 in a limited role and your team doesn't win. I don't see that as being beneficial to that
16:54 player, because if you're averaging 15 to six and your team wins, European teams are
16:59 going to have value in that. So it's you know, we're still only two and a half years or so
17:07 into this whole NIL thing. I said at the start it's going to take a few years to kind of
17:11 level out. I think it's going to take more than than that initial two or three that I
17:15 said. I think from this day, it still takes another two, maybe three years. So that's
17:20 about a five year timeline overall for for things to kind of really get figured out.
17:25 The other thing we haven't even ever touched on, because it keeps changing is, you know,
17:29 the unionization of these college athletes trying to create a union. I don't even want
17:34 to try to understand that or go down that road. And then the other idea that's come
17:38 up is, you know, making these athletes employees of the university. OK, well, what exactly
17:44 does that mean? You know, that that those two topics right there, our entire podcast
17:49 shows in and of its own, because there's so many different facets that you have to understand
17:56 and take into consideration when you talk about those. Those aren't just quick blanket
18:00 statements. Those are big, in-depth conversations. Yeah. And one that. I have you kind of hit
18:08 some of my thesis on the head about all of this of it's not necessarily great for you
18:13 as a player, as a commodity to go ride the pine at a major D1 power five school. I can
18:21 tell you definitively the viewers. I have a ton of accumulated hardware over in a little
18:29 trophy case over there that meant absolutely nothing for my draft stock because I never
18:33 pitched and I never got on a mound and no pro team had any interest in taking the flyer
18:37 on a middle reliever that threw two thirds of an inning in four years. It does nothing
18:41 for you. So, yeah, I can tell you that, like Dan said, it's an it's an interesting thought
18:48 of if I go 60 schools down in the rankings, it gives me a ton more opportunity to then.
18:54 Oh, yeah. OK, maybe you're in Warsaw, but you're making good money playing in Poland
18:59 like it's not a bad gig compared to not being anywhere in the pros because you just needed
19:06 to go to Ohio State because that's what you grew up a fan of. And then you you scored
19:11 two points in four years. Like it's it's interesting. I don't think that the NIL has
19:15 been quite the scud missile that came in and was going to destroy all of it. It's been
19:19 fine. And if anything, a lot of these schools. Just haven't raised a ton of money, and it's
19:26 it's not like some donor cashed in a bunch of Bitcoin and said, OK, now the University
19:31 of Miami has a billion dollars to play with. It's just not happening like that. I do also
19:37 with Dan, when you say those numbers, I always like the visual of there being a physical
19:41 portal and coaches just hitting shuffle and like random players coming out and then having
19:47 to decide, do we want to keep a six one shooting at throwback or hit this guy not throwback?
19:51 Because how do you sort through eighteen hundred to two thousand names? Like, obviously, you
19:55 have a staff that's dedicated to it. But at some point, like, can you really put in the
19:59 legwork to even take 10 seconds to identify who some of those players are? It's just an
20:04 insane number. That all being said, though, let's talk about some zags in the pros, because
20:09 the NBA playoffs are here. Chet's got a national ad campaign for what a pro wants. Well, he
20:15 sings a little bit. I don't know if he actually did the vocals, but, you know, hey, Chet,
20:18 you got a nice voice. If that if that is you sing a good little backup vocal career. If
20:22 the NBA doesn't work out for you, give the people the rundown on what the zags are doing
20:27 in in the NBA playoffs. Yeah, there's a lot of zags currently playing in the playoffs.
20:33 Obviously, the Montes Bonas and the Kings lost in the play in. But, you know, there's
20:37 a lot of guys still playing right now. Jalen Suggs with the magic. They lost game one.
20:44 He struggled a little bit. Thirteen points, four rebounds, four assists, four sixteen
20:47 from the field, one seven from three. But that's going to be a very interesting series
20:52 to keep an eye on because they're both really evenly matched teams. Suggs matching up with
21:02 Donovan Mitchell and or Darius Garland are really good matchups. You know, I think Suggs
21:07 is really endeared himself to the fans in Orlando with how he plays in the effort. No
21:14 different than what Gonzaga fans saw in the one year he played in Spokane. So that's one
21:20 to look out for. The other one is Chet with the one seed Oklahoma City Thunder. I mean,
21:27 he had a terrific playoff debut, 15 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks. I think he's the
21:32 one of the only, if not the only player to ever post those numbers in a playoff debut.
21:39 Had a really big block with under a minute left to essentially seal the win. They ended
21:44 up winning by two. So he's off to a heck of a start there. And then you go back to the
21:49 Eastern Conference. Andrew Nembhardt with the Pacers started, played 30 minutes in their
21:55 first game, even though they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks. He played okay, six points, but you
22:00 know, his emphasis in his, his performances are probably really going to be based defensively
22:10 in this series, simply for the fact that he's going to have the assignment of Damian Lillard
22:15 quite a bit. I watched a few minutes of the game the other night and you know, everything
22:19 with, with Giannis out, everything starts and ends with Damian Lillard for the Bucks.
22:24 And so yeah, Lillard had a good game, but he had to earn it all. I thought Nembhardt
22:29 had some nice stretches defensively. But if, if Indiana is going to get that upset win,
22:36 I think Andrew Nembhardt's going to have to have a terrific series, which I think he's
22:39 capable of. And then the last couple Gonzaga players that are in the playoffs, back to
22:46 the Western Conference, you got the Nuggets versus the Lakers. You know, Julian Strother
22:51 didn't play in the first game. I don't expect to see him play much, if at all in this series.
22:59 It's just the way that the Nuggets are built in the stage of his career that he's in. You
23:04 know, I think there's a growth curve, a learning curve to everything like we've talked about
23:07 many times, but he didn't play in game one. But on the flip side for the Lakers, Rui started,
23:13 had seven points, only two or four from the field. So, you know, obviously everything
23:17 for the Lakers is geared around LeBron, Anthony Davis, and then Austin Reeves kind of picks
23:24 up a lot of those third touches, so to speak. So Rui's kind of really got to be opportunistic
23:31 when he gets opportunities. But those are the Gonzaga players to follow that are alive
23:36 in the playoffs.
23:37 Dan, let's close out with this. You kind of talked about the next deadline for the portal
23:44 is undergraduates and their names. It doesn't seem like there's any major, major news, but
23:51 I'll just say, what are you looking at? Are you looking at in the next couple weeks, no
23:59 news is good news for Gonzaga or got to have a couple of things happen?
24:04 Well, I think no news is good news simply for the fact that I like how this roster is
24:09 with no more changes is shaping up for next season. You know, I do. I think if you, you
24:16 got to find a way to replace Anton in particular, his, you know, attributes that can't show
24:24 that don't show up in a box score in his leadership. I think you can find ways to manufacture extra
24:29 points through different guys or growth of different players and things like that. But
24:34 you got to find that kind of X factor guy like Anton. You know, who's that going to
24:39 be? Does Ben Gregg continue to evolve into that? Maybe does Luka Kronovich become someone
24:44 who's dependable night in, night out? Steele Venters, how healthy is he going to be and
24:50 can he kind of take some of that load? So there's lots of lots of possibilities there.
24:55 You know, I think with the NBA early draft deadline starting soon, I would not be surprised
25:04 to see another Gonzaga player or two put their name in the draft. Whether it's, you know,
25:10 Graham EK, Ryan Nembhard, Nolan Hickman, even just to test the waters, just to get a couple
25:19 NBA workouts under their belt, just to hear from that perspective, because all these guys
25:24 want to play in the NBA, right? Just to get from that, their perspective from the front
25:29 NBA front office, you know, what their possible value is now, what it could be in a year from
25:35 now if they work on XYZ skills, or they refine the things that are even putting them on on
25:42 NBA teams radar. So I wouldn't be surprised if a couple guys put their name in the draft.
25:48 I don't think any of them would stay in the draft. I mean, I've seen bigger surprises,
25:54 but I don't think any of those anybody on Gonzaga's roster currently, you know, is that
26:00 valued by a front office. And I don't say that in a negative way at all. I'm just saying
26:04 it in reality. I think there's lots of guys that have potential to be there at some point
26:09 in their basketball careers, but just at this moment in time, I don't see it. So that's
26:14 just really the only thing I see is sometimes you're just not an NBA player. You can be
26:18 a fantastic college player. So it's not an indictment of what the like you said, it's
26:21 not an indictment of what the current Gonzaga roster is. There's just nobody currently right
26:26 there who is a first 10 picks kind of thing. So probably not somebody who's willing to
26:31 risk the rest of their college eligibility to try and sit out the rest of the draft and
26:35 see if they get swooped up in the last day or, you know, you don't want to be an undrafted
26:39 free agent. There's not a lot of NBA slots and spots for that kind of stuff. So, all
26:43 right, Dan, we will file it under good. No news is good news. Transfer portal for the
26:46 undergrads is going to close next year. There is nothing else that you got. We will say
26:50 thank you very much, Gonzaga fans for tuning in. And as always, we'll remind you, Dan is
26:55 in that studio cranking out great, amazing, high quality content where his co-hosts don't
27:01 accidentally say things that are just completely foot and mouth type statements like I have
27:06 scrubbed out from the earlier part of this podcast that none of you will ever know the
27:09 mistake I made. Ha ha ha. Thank you, though, for tuning in and everybody. We'll talk to
27:12 you guys next week.
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