Gonzaga Basketball: Andrew Nembhard gives team clear 2021 starting PG

Andrew Nembhard has made the decision to play for Gonzaga Basketball after transferring from Florida.

Gonzaga Basketball has been in the news this month thanks to a variety of topics. Between the pending NBA Draft decisions, the whereabouts of Jalen Suggs, and transfer adventures, the roster is nowhere near finalized. However, a new addition is confirmed with former Florida Gator guard Andrew Nembhard.

The second time is a charm for the program and their efforts to land the sophomore point guard. The Bulldogs were a finalist to land Nembhard in the first go-around a couple of years ago and just barely missed out. But the previous history between the coaching staff and the player and his family seemed to have proven to be a major benefit. Gonzaga defeated Duke, Memphis, USC, and others in the recruiting race for Nembhard, which has huge implications.

While many transfers who moved this offseason are looking for waivers to play next season, Nembhard is all but assured to sit out and redshirt. That’s because the Bulldogs already have a star point guard for 2020-21 in Jalen Suggs. The five-star commit is a definite “one and done” player for the program but has been linked to possibly going pro and never step foot in Spokane.

With an arrival a week away it seems, Gonzaga fans will finally have official notice of their star ball-handler. Joining him is Aaron Cook, a good grad transfer guard from Southern Illinois who’ll also be around for a year. The team was going to need a replacement for these two for the following season. Of all of the top current targets for the Bulldogs’ 2021 recruiting class, (Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero, Hunter Sallis, etc), there wasn’t a clear idea of who the point guard the staff was going after.

That possibly meant that they were going to go after an elite grad transfer in the next offseason but with Nembhard on board, that issue is cleared up. It allows the coaching staff to go full-steam ahead with the five-star talents and can also still land a point guard for the future unless they’re confident that incoming four-star guard Dominick Harris can take over when it’s time.

When he’s ready to get on the court, Nembhard, at the very least, provides the Bulldogs a double-digit scorer with great passing ability and is a quality defender on the other end of the court. Some argue that the former five-star prospect underachieved at Florida but that would excuse the questionable lineups, lack of spacing, and players who were better as individual scorers that weren’t best suited playing off the ball.

Nembhard would instead be playing for the back-to-back No. 1 scoring offense in the country. Even without players such as Corey Kispert or Filip Petrusev around, the Bulldogs have plenty of quality shooters, forwards and big men to surround the former Gator. The pick and rolls and constant screens the coaching staff uses is a great matchup for Nembhard, who’ll also get a chance to display more of his own offensive game. His game is similar to Nigel Williams-Goss, a transfer from Washington who led the Bulldogs to their first-ever national title game in 2017.

Considering that there are programs that currently have holes to fill for the upcoming season alone, Gonzaga Basketball is in great shape from a roster standpoint. Regardless of who graduates or goes pro for the 2021 NBA Draft, the Bulldogs will have little issue reloading for the season after. With Andrew Nembhard joining top-75 forward Kaden Perry for the 2021 class, Gonzaga is looking for a mega-group that’ll usurp the fanfare of the “tricky trio” from these past few months.