The Gonzaga Bulldogs may have lost 11 players from last season’s roster, but the big story for Mark Few’s team is the three they were able to keep: sophomores Mario Saint-Supery and Davis Fogle, as well as star big man Braden Huff.
Huff returns for his fourth season playing in a Gonzaga uniform and is primed to take over as the team’s go-to scoring option after averaging 17.8 points last year while shooting a ridiculous 69.7% on two-pointers and 33.3% from three.
Advertisement
It’s not at all unreasonable to project Huff as an All-American this upcoming season, which makes it a surprise he wasn’t included on CBS Sports’ list of the top 25 best returners in college basketball.
The list only included players who are returning to their previous school – not transfers – which makes Huff’s exclusion even more glaring.
Another snub?
This isn’t the first time Huff has been snubbed this offseason. The Field of 68 ranked the top 50(!) returners in college basketball – again excluding transfers – and did not include Huff. In both of these cases, another high-profile big man, Texas Tech‘s JT Toppin, was left off the list as well – and that could help explain the rationale.
Advertisement
Toppin is a former All-American and is unquestionably one of the best returners in college hoops, but he suffered a torn ACL in February and will likely miss a good chunk of this upcoming season. No official timeline has been given for Toppin, and it would make sense for lists like these to exclude him until more clarity around his status emerges.
Perhaps the same logic is being applied to Huff, who missed the final 17 games of Gonzaga’s season with a left knee injury suffered in practice before the team’s road game against Washington State on Jan. 15.
Gonzaga Bulldogs foward Braden Huff. | Photo by Myk Crawford
However, Huff was moving around well before Gonzaga was eliminated by Texas in the Round of 32, and seems all but certain – barring a setback – to be ready for the 2026-27 season opener against Purdue on Nov. 2.
Advertisement
That is not only the most logical explanation for Huff’s omission, but it’s also the only one. The big man is an extremely efficient scoring machine, set to take over a huge role for a team that feeds bigs paint touches like a rich family giving out candy on Halloween.
20 points on 65+% shooting is a completely reasonable projection for the senior, and the addition of Massamba Diop gives Huff help defensively while taking pressure off him as a rebounder as well.
Huff was left off CBS’ list in favor of another Pac-12 star – Utah State guard Mason Falslev – while other notable names included Arizona‘s frontcourt of Mo Krivas (5) and Ivan Kharchenkov (24), Texas big man Matas Vokietaitis (22), Kentucky center Malachi Moreno (20), and a trio of Florida Gators in Thomas Haugh (1), Rueben Chinyelu (9), and Alex Condon (11).
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/gonzaga as Gonzaga star Braden Huff left off CBS Sports’ list of top returners in college basketball.
