Gonzaga Basketball: Key storylines for 2019-20 battle against Alabama State
By Andy Patton
Who will step up as the Hornets leading scorer?
Alabama State is not a good basketball team. KenPom has them No. 321 overall, which is out of 351 D1 teams.
They lost their leading scorer from last season, guard Reginald Gee, to Austin Peay as a transfer. That likely means the reigns will be handed to guard Jacoby Ross, who averaged 12.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists last year in his sophomore campaign.
Strangely, Ross also averaged exactly 12.5 points and 2.3 assists as a freshman, so for the Hornets to have any kind of success this year he’ll need to bump up his production.
Ross shot 37.9 percent from downtown his freshman year, but that dropped to just 33 percent last season, along with an overall field goal percentage of just 33.8. If he is Alabama State’s primary scoring option, his efficiency numbers will need to improve considerably.
Other options could include JuCo transfer Leon Daniels, who averaged 9.5 points in 25 minutes per game last year. He was a machine from downtown, knocking down threes at a 38.5 percent clip. If he can ratchet up his production in a bigger role as a senior, he should be one of the team’s better scorers.
Both Daniels and Ross will struggle against Gonzaga’s bigger, more physical guards, but this game will give Hornets fans a glimpse at the team leaders as they prepare for league play in the SWAC.