JUST IN: Graham Ike of Gonzaga is named a preseason All-American by Blue Ribbon Yearbook.

JUST IN: Graham Ike of Gonzaga is named a preseason All-American by Blue Ribbon Yearbook.

Gonzaga men’s basketball forward Graham Ike is a Blue Ribbon Yearbook preseason third-team All-American, the publication announced Tuesday.

Ike, a 6-foot-9 redshirt senior, was an All-WCC forward and among the 10 finalists for the Karl Malone Power Forward award last season. He was also named a 2023-24 All-American honorable mention by the Associated Press and one of the best transfer players in the country according to CBS Sports.

Ike’s first official honor of the 2024-25 preseason sees him earn a spot on Blue Ribbon’s All-America third team alongside Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner, Saint Louis’ Robbie Avila, Houston’s J’Wan Roberts and Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey.

The first team features four AP All-Americans from a year ago. Highly touted Duke freshman Cooper Flagg appeared on the second team, while a pair of former Zags — Oumar Ballo and Hunter Sallis — were named to the fourth team.

Here is a look at the rest of Blue Ribbon’s First, Second and Fourth teams.

First team:
– Hunter Dickinson (Kansas)
– Alex Karaban (UConn)
– RJ Davis (North Carolina)
– Caleb Love (Arizona)
– Mark Sears (Alabama)

Second team:
– Johni Broome (Auburn)
– Cooper Flagg (Duke)
– Wade Taylor IV (Texas A&M)
– Zakai Zegler (Tennessee)
– Braden Smith (Purdue)

Fourth team:
– Oumar Ballo (Indiana)
– Great Osobor (Washington)
– Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB)
– Hunter Sallis (Wake Forest)
– LJ Cryer (Houston)(Purdue)

For the 2024–25 season, the Bulldogs may now play three Blue Ribbon preseason All-Americans. Gonzaga may play Love and Arizona in the championship/consolation game on day three of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, after facing Ballo and Indiana on day two.

The Zags and Karaban, together with the reigning champion Huskies, square off at Madison Square Garden on December 14. The 6-foot-8 forward scored 12 points in the Elite Eight game a few months earlier and 11 points in UConn’s 76-63 victory against Gonzaga in Seattle the previous season.

Ike went through a period of adjustment during his first few months at Wyoming after suffering a foot ailment that prevented him from playing in the 2022–23 season in conjunction with the Bulldogs. Ike became the sixth player in league history to lead the way in both points per game (18.4) and field goal percentage (64.0%) in conference-only games as his relationship with Ryan Nembhard deepened. Ike excelled in West Coast Conference competition. He finished the season with 15 20-point games and scored 20 points or more in nine of the team’s last 12 games.

Ike is expected to be the center of attention for Mark Few’s offense in 2024–2025. Seven of the club’s top eight scorers from the Sweet 16 team the previous year were returned by the Zags, who also recruited a few transfers through the portal to complete the rotation.

Since its debut in 1981, the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook has gained widespread recognition for its preseason rankings and team previews. When Joe Lunardi, an ESPN college basketball analyst, was managing editor in 1996, he was the one who came up with the word “bracketology” in Blue Ribbon’s special tournament edition.