Will Ryan Nembhard have an All-American season for Gonzaga? 2024-25 player preview
If Ryan Nembhard hadn’t moved from Creighton to Gonzaga, who knows how Mark Few would have managed the point guard situation in the previous season? By the end of the season, the Bulldogs were operating at the pace of one of the top five offenses in the nation, despite some early inconsistency under the leadership of Andrew Nembhard’s younger brother.
To be honest, it took me some time to get used to Gonzaga. Nembhard stated during a Gonzaga Nation episode. “I would say that halfway through conference play, I felt really at ease. I had to get acclimated to playing with a lot of new guys and a different style of play. It was fairly good once I figured that out. During our first year together, coach Few and I felt like we developed a fantastic relationship it’s only going to continue to get better.”
After struggling to be consistent in nonconference play, Nembhard fell into a groove offensively when he started playing with more patience as opposed to urgency in league play. He set Gonzaga’s single-season assists record and was named to the All-WCC first team as he led the conference in assists (6.8 per game) and assist-to-turnover ratio (4.6-1). The spotty 3-point numbers from nonconference play bumped up to 46.0% on 3.1 attempts per game in WCC action.
Nembhard’s connection with Graham Ike in the pick-and-roll game had the Zags surging on offense in the weeks leading up to the NCAA Tournament. Nembhard became the first player in program history since Dan Dickau in 2001 to have back-to-back games with 10 or more points and 10 or more assists during a hot stretch in January, followed by a 20-point, 10-assist night in Moraga, California, to take down Saint Mary’s in the regular season finale. In the NCAA Tournament, he averaged 9.3 assists to go with 9.0 points.
With six other rotational players back from that Sweet 16 team, Nembhard doesn’t have to learn as many new names heading into his senior season as he did a year ago. Nolan Hickman is back supporting him in the backcourt, while Ben Gregg, Braden Huff and Ike occupy the frontcourt. Along with the holdovers, Gonzaga brought in three impactful transfers in Michael Ajayi (Pepperdine), Khalif Battle (Arkansas) and Emmanuel Innocenti (Tarleton State) to round out the 2024-25 rotation.
Boasting continuity and depth, the Bulldogs have become a trendy pick as an early Final Four contender. Perhaps no player is more important to those aspirations than Nembhard — seven of the past 10 national champions had the same point guard in the starting lineup from the season before.
“This is the most competitive summer I’ve had in college basketball,” Nembhard said. “Every time we play pickup the scores end in a 1-point, 2-point game so I’m just seeing a bunch of guys that are super competitive. I really like this group of guys. I think coach Few is always great at figuring out the roster and figuring out who’s gonna play what minutes and divvying it up that way. I know he’s a great in this sport so he’ll figure it all out.”
Here is an in-depth preview at Nembhard’s 2024-25 season and his NBA outlook.
A lot of Nembhard’s decision-making early on last season came down to whether he was playing grounded and patient or up-tempo and out of rhythm. Some of the inconsistencies had to do with adjusting to a new offense, though Nembhard’s own desires to play fast and off one foot played a role as well.
“When I got to college I was always a one-foot guy,” Nembhard said. “I just thought playing off two kinda limited you, but I feel like as I’ve gotten older, playing off two and slowing it down sometimes works.”
Nembhard made that connection during the WCC regular season, as he started attempting fewer floaters off one foot in favor of more controlled push-shots off two feet. As a smaller guard that helped him patiently navigate and probe through taller defenders.
Standing 6-foot-tall according to the team roster, Nembhard recognizes he’ll have to play with more control when he gets downhill into the teeth of the defense this season. According to hoop-math.com, he made 55.0% of his field goal attempts at the rim last season — only Dusty Stromer (53.6%) had a lower conversion rate on the team.
Outside the arc, Nembhard shot the ball with more confidence against WCC competition than he did against the nonleague opponents. Without a learning curve to overcome this season, perhaps his 3-point numbers in his second season at Gonzaga will look more like what they did during his second and final season at Creighton, when he shot 35.6% on 4.0 attempts per game as a sophomore.
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