After coming up one game short of a perfect season, falling in the national championship game to Baylor, the Gonzaga Bulldogs went out and reloaded for another run next year. In case there were any question left as to whether the Zags belonged in the blue-blood conversation in college basketball, they’ve now officially become an NBA lottery pick pipeline in the one-and-done world.
It started with Jalen Suggs this year, who is set to be a top 5 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, and their next one-and-done star is on his way to Gonzaga this fall, as the No. 1 recruit in the country and Suggs’ former high school teammate, Chet Holmgren, announced he was headed to Spokane on Monday.
Chet Holmgren is headed to Gonzaga pic.twitter.com/p2SxlxdoAj
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) April 19, 2021
Now, it’s possible Holmgren chooses to go the G League Ignite route still, but if he does stick with playing college hoops it will be for Mark Few and Gonzaga. The Bulldogs aren’t strangers to putting guys into the league, but Suggs and Holmgren are the first real one-and-done prospects to come through Gonzaga and marks a full shift in them becoming a program that carries the recruiting weight to bring in the top players who will head to the NBA quickly.
Holmgren’s talent is spectacular, as he put on display in a national showcase back in November against Emoni Bates, and the young star opened up to us recently about his game and his aspirations to continue improving to be great at the NBA level. His next stop — as it stands now — will be with Gonzaga, as they look to break through for that first national championship in 2022.
