Who starts: Joel Ayayi or Admon Gilder?
Reserve guard Joel Ayayi got his first start of the season on Monday against Texas Southern and he shined, scoring 16 points while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out four assists in a team-leading 33 minutes of action.
Ayayi has arguably outplayed both of Gonzaga’s starting guards, Gilder and Ryan Woolridge, and certainly deserves the minutes that he is playing.
However, Mark Few has always liked having one of his better, more dynamic offensive players coming off the bench, as evidenced by Rui Hachimura, Zach Collins and Domantas Sabonis all spending time as reserve players in the past.
Ayayi’s recent start was in place of Gilder because he was dealing with an injury, which Few admitted had kept him out of practice all week.
Still, it’s clear Ayayi is the better player (at least right now) and it might make sense to start Ayayi thanks to his superior outside shooting and rebounding skills, both of which will be very important against UW’s 2-3 zone defense.
Gilder’s health will obviously be the number one factor here. If he is completely healed and back to 100 percent, it’s likely he’ll start and Ayayi will continue to play big (28+) minutes off the bench, filling in for both Woolridge and Gilder.
Because he already plays more minutes, it may not matter whether Ayayi starts or not, although it will give a glimpse into Gilder’s health and also Gonzaga’s strategy against the zone defense.