WBB Gonzaga Transfers: Vera Gunaydin

In Tuesday’s article, I posted about the third of four incoming transfers that Coach Fortier and the Bulldogs will be introducing this coming fall. As a reminder, here are the four:

• G — Tayla Dalton — St. Mary’s
• G — Ines Bettencourt — UConn
• G — Vera Gunaydin — South Georgia Tech (JuCo)
• F — McKynnlie Dalan — Minnesota

Today, we’re going to be covering Vera Gunaydin.

Hailing from the capital of Turkey, Ankara, Vera Gunaydin arrives at Gonzaga with two years of remaining eligibility after spending her first stint in college basketball at South Georgia Technical College.

As a freshman, Vera didn’t see much time on the court with only 6.6 minutes per game spread across 25 appearances with no starts. That being said, ‘22-23 Lady Jets were really good as they went 32-1, won the NJAA D1 Southeast District, and earned the overall #1 seed in the postseason where they would advance to the quarterfinal before falling to the eventual national champions, Northwest Florida State.

Gunaydin took on a much larger role in her second season starting all 32 games and averaged 27.6 minutes. In that time, she averaged 13 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.6 steals, and 2.4 turnovers per game. When looking at her shooting numbers, it looks like Vera played primarily off the ball on the perimeter as she lead the team in shots per game with 11.5 total and 7 from deep with shooting percentages of 40.2% and 33%, respectively.

If we extrapolate the raw numbers available, this would indicate that she drained 51.1% of her two pointers, a number that would rank third on last year’s Gonzaga squad behind just Yvonne Ejim, Maud Hujibens, and Bree Salenbien. While her three point efficiency doesn’t rank well compared to that GU squad, Vera did lead her own team in 3FG% so it could be possible that her numbers are lower due her status as the leading offensive player, which attracted more defensive attention, something that won’t likely be the case in Spokane.

In the press release announcing Vera’s transfer, Coach Fortier stated, “We were immediately drawn to Vera because of her ability to shoot the ball from a distance and her commitment to being one of the hardest workers everywhere she’s been.” Additionally, Coach added that, “[Gunaydin] has been pushed to expand her game and play different positions, and has thrived in each situation”.

When looking into Vera, I found that she’s very active on twitter and has her own youtube profile where she uploaded a highlight video of last year’s season. On twitter, she’s already posting and retweeting material about Gonzaga and her current profile picture features her sporting a Bulldogs shirt at practice. Those are awesome signs as a fan thinking about the family-oriented nature of this program driven by the all-in mentality of its players.

It’s unknown exactly what role Vera will play given the transitional state of the backcourt, but it seems likely that the 5’9” guard will compete for minutes off the bench with players like Claire O’Connor and Tayla Dalton likely taking the lion’s share of minutes. That being said, a spot off the bench isn’t necessarily locked down as she will also have to compete with incoming players like Allie Turner, Christabel Osarobo, and Ines Bettancourt for those minutes.

There have been some discussion on the Spokesman in previous recruiting articles about the amount of scholarships this team has available with the official number unknown, but postulated as being 15 possible, which means the team has a minimum of two open slots and possibly three if Ella Hopkins remains a walk-on. The recruiting period shutdown ended on August 19th so there is still the possibility of picking up another player or two, but with the season starting in 68 days, that possibility seems increasingly unlikely.