The rich get richer. Junior guard, Andrew Nembhard, who transferred this offseason from the Florida Gators was granted immediate eligibility. Gonzaga is already the preseason number one team and now they add one of the best guards in the country. The NCAA has been extremely lenient (rightfully so) with waivers this year, but this is the biggest one yet.
Andrew Nembhard Immediately Eligible for Gonzaga Bulldogs
Nembhard is coming off his best season at Florida. He averaged 11.2 points, 5,6 assists, and 3.1 rebounds per game for a team that drastically underperformed. Without question, Nembhard was one of the best point guards in the SEC, but he suffered from a lack of offensive under Coach Mike White. He now finds himself in a perfect situation to succeed in Spokane.
Nembhard is a big guard that has a crafty ability to make plays for himself and for others. While playing for Team Canada in World Cups, he has frequently produced double-digit assist games and showed a knack to make the right play. At Florida, those skills were less obvious, but it was out of necessity. He was really counted on to make the offense function and score more than he is naturally comfortable. He will just be asked to be himself at Gonzaga and that is a dangerous proposition.
While he did not shoot it that well in Gainesville, those numbers should improve. Nembhard shot 33 percent from deep for his career, but many of those shots were deep, contested, and at the end of the shot clock. Playing in the flow of a true offense will let Nembhard explode onto the scene.
Gonzaga Bulldogs’ Embarrassment of Riches
Somehow, Mark Few’s job just got harder. He has to manage the minutes of Nembhard along with Jalen Suggs, Joel Ayayi, and Corey Kispert. Of those four, only three can be on the court at once and that ignores a deep roster of talent behind them. Of course, this is much better than the alternative of not enough talent.
Most likely, Nembhard will come off the bench. Suggs is already one of the best point guards in the country and he has not played yet. Ayayi is a stud as well and brings a ton defensively. Kispert will start at the three and should score at will with all this talent around him.
That leaves Nembhard to run the second unit and spell some minutes from Suggs and Ayayi as the playmaker. Historically, Few has a lot of success when he has a good guard. This year, he has three of them.
The Bulldogs already came into this opening week of games as the number one team in the nation. While they have had some game cancellations due to opponents testing positive for COVID, they have just stamped their place in the country. The question of “Is Gonzaga really good enough?” no longer exists. The question now becomes “Can anyone really beat Gonzaga?” Spokane is going to be going wild.
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