It is never too early to start planning for next season, even if Gonzaga’s current eligibility situation and roster uncertainty heading into the 2026-27 season make planning feel borderline irresponsible. The Bulldogs’ entire offseason has been consumed by NCAA uncertainty thanks to waiver cases, court orders, and a nightmarishly litigious governing body seemingly hell-bent on ruining the sport to make a point about… fairness? I guess?
Hopefully, once this summer’s NCAA litigation mess is settled,
Gonzaga and 360+ other teams in D1 college basketball will have actual parameters for who is eligible, when they are eligible, and why. For now, though, the clearest way to view Gonzaga’s 2027-28 roster is through its likely departures and the 2027 commits that could be asked to fill the vacant roster spots.
Nothing is totally certain in college basketball anymore, but it’s more than likely that after this coming season, Xaivian Lee, Javon Bennett, Chauncey Wiggins, Nathan De Sousa, and Braden Huff have exhausted all of their remaining competitive eligibility (that is, of course, assuming Lee, De Sousa, Bennett, and Wiggins actually gain and maintain it in the first place). Perhaps equally consequential is whether Davis Fogle and/or Massamba Diop develop into the 2027 NBA Draft departures many are speculating they will, and whether Izan Almansa receives clearance and remains in college, and, because this is now college basketball, how many other eligible players decide the transfer portal offers a better path.
The good news is that Gonzaga already has a legitimate foundation for 2027, and that foundation has looked better with every evaluation period. 2027 commit Dooney Johnson is a lock for the Zags, but he is not the only high-end piece the Zags are pursuing. If Gonzaga can add either Jalen Davis or Gene Roebuck, or, in the ideal scenario, both, the Bulldogs’ 2027-28 freshman class could quickly become one of the most exciting in the country.
The Rise of Dooney Johnson
Dooney Johnson committed to the Bulldogs in October 2025, one of the earliest commitments in the cycle, when he was already a coveted four-star prospect from Milwaukee Juneau in Wisconsin. Most importantly, the Zags locked him down before a full summer on the Nike EYBL circuit pushed him into a different tier of the class. Johnson is now No. 11 in Rivals’ post-summer 2027 rankings, after sitting No. 31 in Rivals’ May update and No. 12 entering July. He is the highest-ranked player currently committed in the 2027 class.
Playing for Team Herro, Johnson led the program in scoring at 14.9 points per game over 22 EYBL contests, despite ranking only fifth on the team in minutes at 23.6 per game. He added 4.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game, finishing second in assists and third in rebounds. In EYBL league play, Rivals recorded him at 14.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.7 steals per game. Team Herro reached the Peach Jam semifinals, where Johnson put up 16 points, four rebounds, and three assists against the Florida Rebels. He went 6-for-11 on two-point attempts in that game, a useful snapshot of the part of his game that has driven his rise: getting downhill and living in the paint.
Johnson earned Nike EYBL First Team recognition alongside Rivals prospects ranked No. 2 DeMarcus Henry, No. 4 Beckham Black, No. 8 Cayden Daughtry and No. 10 Lewis Uvwo. He also stood out at the Pangos All-America Camp and the NBPA Top 100, meaning his ranking rise was not built on a single Peach Jam weekend. It reflected a summer in which he continued to show up against the best competition available to his class.
At 6-foot-7, Johnson has the dimensions of a wing but plays like a lead guard. He uses his length and physicality to barrel into traffic, can make the next pass once defenses collapse, and has the size to see passing lanes and bother opposing ball handlers on the other end. Johnson has the tools to become the kind of large, disruptive perimeter defender Gonzaga has increasingly valued in addition to being the kind of highly physical, high-IQ floor general the Zags had in Jalen Suggs.
The long-term swing skill is the jumper. Johnson made 26.6% of his EYBL threes on a substantial 5.0 attempts per game, so it would be dishonest to treat outside shooting as a settled strength. But there is a difference between an unproven shooter who avoids attempting threes and a high-usage creator willing to take them while carrying a major offensive burden. Johnson still has one more season in high school (which he will spend in Florida after transferring to East River High School in Orlando for his senior year) to focus on that part of his game. The more difficult traits to teach – his positional size, force, passing feel, defensive activity, and comfort operating with the ball – are already in the bag.
Whatever uncertainty surrounds Gonzaga’s 2027-28 roster, Johnson increasingly looks like the type of prospect around whom a coherent one can be built.
The Latest on Jalen Davis
If Dooney Johnson is the oversized initiator Gonzaga can build around, Jalen Davis may be the cleanest possible backcourt complement. The 6-foot-3 Bremerton product has emerged from the summer as the top-ranked player in Washington and one of the country’s premier 2027 guards. Davis is No. 18 nationally in Rivals’ most recent 2027 rankings, one spot ahead of fellow Washington standout Christian Gurdak, and is the state’s highest-ranked prospect on the list. Gonzaga offered Davis in July 2025, made his final 10 and will host him for an official visit on Nov. 7.
Playing with Thomas’ Grind on the Adidas 3SSB circuit, Davis led all 17U scorers at 23.9 points per game while shooting nearly 50% from the field. At Section 7 in June, he scored 39 points in front of Gonzaga coaches during a high-profile matchup with fellow five-star Adan Diggs. As a junior at Bremerton, Davis averaged a staggering 31.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 5.8 steals, and 5.2 assists per game. He shot 63.9% from the field and 40% from three while leading the Knights to a 26-2 record and a second consecutive Class 2A state championship.
Davis is a powerful scorer who can work out of ball screens, hit jumpers off the catch or dribble, and get to the rim with either hand. His speed and vision mean he can also create for teammates, making him more than a volume scorer. Johnson’s size would allow Gonzaga to use Davis in a variety of ways, including as a primary ball handler or an off-ball scorer attacking the openings Johnson creates. Davis would bring the more conventional guard skills that allow an offense to move cleanly from one action to the next: pace, shooting gravity, shot creation, and quick decisions. In short, the Zags would once again have a clean return to the dual playmaking backcourt set that’s defined some of its best teams in recent years.
Davis also makes tremendous basketball sense alongside Dooney Johnson. A future backcourt with both players would give Gonzaga two creators with contrasting physical profiles and overlapping offensive versatility, rather than two players competing for identical responsibilities.
The Latest on Gene Roebuck
Gene Roebuck is not officially committed yet, but word on the street is that he is looking more and more like a Zag by the day. The 6-foot-5 La Mirada, California, wing has also visited UCLA, USC and Cal and still has other trips to make. Still, the momentum appears favorable for Gonzaga. Roebuck has praised Mark Few, said he wanted to return to Spokane, and Gonzaga coaches made a point of seeing him repeatedly during the Adidas 3SSB summer.
Roebuck averaged 19.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, and two assists over 17 Adidas 3SSB games for Dream Vision, making 2.2 threes per game. In his official 3SSB statistical sample, he shot 52% from the field and 42% from three. He then averaged 23 points and five rebounds at the Palmetto Road Championship, including a 36-point performance against Indiana Elite. In Rivals’ updated rankings, Roebuck comes in at No. 44 while 247 Sports places him in the top-50 also.
While Dooney Johnson is a large creator who wants to get downhill and bend defenses, Roebuck is a strong scoring wing who can space the floor, rebound, create a shot when a possession breaks down, and take advantage from the perimeter when defenders collapse inside. If Gonzaga does land him, the excitement should come from the fit itself as much as the hype around his individual player profile.
Final Thoughts
In an era when college basketball rosters can be remade in a single offseason, there is unusual value in bringing in a freshman class that already fits together. Transfers can fill a hole, and a veteran can change a season, but neither necessarily gives a program the continuity of three players arriving at the same time, learning the system together and developing a shared understanding over multiple years.
That is the real appeal here. Gonzaga’s 2027-28 roster remains impossible to predict with total confidence because the NCAA’s eligibility process, NBA decisions, and the transfer portal will determine so much of it. But a Johnson-Davis-Roebuck class would give Mark Few something unusually stable amid all that chaos: a group of talented perimeter players who could grow together and provide a foundation long after the rest of the roster picture changes.
Gonzaga has a long way to go before that becomes reality. But with Johnson already committed and Davis and Roebuck firmly on the radar, it is not hard to see why this recruiting class is worth following now, if only as a reaffirming distraction from the hellscape of litigatory upheaval that’s defined this year’s offseason.
