WBB: Mapping Out the New Roster

One of the talking points heading into this season will be how Gonzaga rebounds after a season that could arguably be its best overall performance. While the return of Yvonne Ejim clearly sets the floor for this team, the ‘24-25 campaign will be an interesting year with few roles set in stone and, as a result, many unknowns.

By my calculations, this Gonzaga squad will be returning just over 34% of minutes played and 39% of points scored from the ‘23-24 season. This reflects a stark difference heading into last year which saw about 85% of minutes played and 89% of its scoring returning from the ‘22-23 season.

Those returning numbers will actually be the lowest on record in not just Lisa Fortier’s time at the helm, but also the Kelly Graves era as the only team to even come close is the ‘05-06 squad who returned about 47% of its minutes and 44% of its scoring from the previous year and no other team returning under 50% of either minutes or scoring.

Across that eighteen year span coinciding with my first year in college, Gonzaga has gone 501-130, which results in an average record of about 28-7, with the team yielding double-digit loses just three times, including that inexperienced ‘05-06 squad that suffered 14 defeats. That type of consistency is flat out amazing and while there are numerous reasons for this unyielding success, having a roster that knows each other on and off the court likely helps more than it hurts.

As such, predicting how this team will perform feels like a fools errand. Heck, even trying to predict the starting lineup feels like a monumental challenge when looking from the outside inwards. But for love of the game, let’s give it a shot:

Forward — Yvonne Ejim

Forward — Maud Hujibens

Guard/Wing — McKynnlie Dalan

Guard — Claire O’Connor

Guard — Tayla Dalton

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6th Woman — Esther Little

Secondary Guard — Ines Bettencourt

Secondary Big — Lauren Whitaker

X-Factor — Bree Salenbien, Allie Turner, Christobal Osarobo, Vera Gunaydin, Ella Hopkins

I’m not necessarily setting this lineup in stone, but from my limited perspective both in terms of connection to the program and not really having anyone to bounce ideas off, I’m going to start with this assumption and work my outwards. I plan on going into more detail about the squad and possible lineups in future articles, but I’m interested to hear others’ thoughts so hit the chat below to drop your predictions.