Izan Almansa committed to Gonzaga in May, giving Mark Few a 6-foot-10 former G League Ignite forward with a year in Australia’s NBL, time in Real Madrid’s system and more experience against grown men than most players Gonzaga brings in from the high school or transfer ranks. He joined what is probably the most exciting frontcourt in college basketball for the 2026-27 season, featuring Braden Huff returning from injury and 7-foot-1 Arizona State transfer Massamba Diop.
While Xaivian Lee remains the eligibility question Gonzaga needs answered first, given how thoroughly the point guard spot fell apart this summer, Almansa is not far behind. Huff is the offense, and Diop is the rim protection, but neither player has recently a particular aptitude for cleaning up the glass or imposing their will with physicality in the low post.
Almansa remains in eligibility limbo while the NCAA decides whether or not his previous professional experience precludes him from the right to join the college ranks in 2026-27. And the Zags need Almansa cleared because he provides the parts of a frontcourt rotation Huff and Diop do not naturally cover: rebounding, physicality and the versatility and size necessary to play either spot as necessary. Almansa could be the difference between Gonzaga having two really good frontcourt players in its starting lineup and Gonzaga having the best frontcourt in the nation.
The Rebounding Math
Huff and Diop unquestionably give Gonzaga one of the best scoring frontcourt duos in the country. Huff averaged 17.8 points on 66.2 percent shooting before the knee injury ended last season, while Diop put up 13.6 points and 2.1 blocks as a 7-foot-1 freshman at Arizona State. Huff can score from the block, the elbow and the perimeter while Diop gives Gonzaga the rim protection Huff has never been asked to provide. There are not many teams that can pair a scorer like Huff with a center Diop’s size and versatility.
The question, though, is what happens after the shot goes up. Huff finished last season with 101 rebounds in 457 minutes, while Diop had 193 in 979. That works out to 8.8 rebounds per 40 minutes for the 6-foot-10 Huff and 7.9 for Diop.
Those numbers are obviously not a projection of Gonzaga’s total rebounding in the upcoming season, but they illustrate the concern. If Huff and Diop played the full game together and rebounded at those same rates, they would combine for fewer than 17 total rebounds. By comparison, last season’s pairing of Huff and Graham Ike combined for an average of roughly 21 rebounds per 40 minutes. And it’s not like Gonzaga fans remember the Ike/Huff frontcourt for its dominance on the glass, quite the opposite, in fact.
Gonzaga has had individual bigs in this low rebounding range before. Kyle Wiltjer was at 7.5 rebounds per 40 in 2015-16. Rui Hachimura was at 8.6 in 2018-19. Drew Timme landed around 9.7 in 2021-22. But the difference has always come down to who that player is paired with inside. Wiltjer played with Domantas Sabonis, who was at nearly 15 boards per 40. Rui played with Brandon Clarke, who was at 12.2. Timme played with Chet Holmgren, who was at 14.7, and Anton Watson, who was around the 10.5 range. Gonzaga could live with a skilled scorer in the 7-to-9 rebounds-per-40 range because it had somebody else absorbing contact in the post and controlling the glass.
The same was true back in 2016-17. Przemek Karnowski was at roughly 10 rebounds per 40, and Zach Collins added 13.7. Gonzaga did not have to choose between offense, rim protection and rebounding because the two bigs could cover all three.
Regardless of the scoring Huff and Diop are projected to provide, their rebounding profile falls well below Gonzaga’s recent frontcourt pairings of comparable size, and the difference is not minor, either.
Huff and Diop have more than enough talent to start for a top-10 team. The problem is that Gonzaga has usually paired a skilled, offense-first big like Huff with a player like Sabonis, or Clarke, or Holmgren. This time, that second player is Diop, a 7-foot-1 shot blocker whose recent rebounding rate is below even Huff’s own, while Huff’s 8.8 rebounds per 40 still trail even Drew Timme’s worst rebounding season.
That is the gap Almansa is supposed to cover.
What Almansa Adds
Almansa averaged 7.4 rebounds in 27.6 minutes across 32 games for G-League Ignite in 2023-24, with 2.8 offensive boards and 4.5 defensive boards per game. That is 10.7 rebounds per 40 minutes, including 4.1 on the offensive end and 6.5 on the defensive end. He was 19 years old, playing 30 starts in a league built around NBA prospects and veteran fringe professionals, and he was still finding the ball at a rate Huff and Diop have not recently come close to despite their size and playing time.
His numbers during his time in Perth are a smaller sample size but point to the same thing. Almansa averaged 4.3 rebounds in 17.2 minutes last season, including 1.6 offensive rebounds and 2.8 defensive rebounds. That works out to 10 per 40. He played 499 total minutes for a Perth team with more experienced frontcourt players ahead of him, and still pulled down 128 rebounds.
That is the part Gonzaga does not get from Huff or Diop. Almansa is not walking in as another 6-foot-10 scorer waiting for post touches, or another shot blocker chasing every drive. His recent production has come from cleaning up misses on both ends. He had 90 offensive rebounds over his Ignite season and 47 in 29 NBL games, numbers that give Gonzaga another player willing to work from the weak side rather than waiting for the ball to find him.
Almansa also had seven rebounds in 18 minutes for Spain against Ukraine in February. One international qualifier does not establish anything by itself, but it fits the rest of the record. Put him in a bigger, more physical game and he has generally found a way to stay involved around the glass.
Foul Insurance
Gonzaga’s biggest frontcourt problems in March tend to begin when an opponent figures out how to compromise the playing time of its frontcourt centerpiece. Zach Collins fouled out in 14 minutes during the 2017 title game against North Carolina. Chet Holmgren picked up his fourth foul with 8:36 left against Arkansas in the 2022 Sweet 16 and fouled out three minutes later. Drew Timme took his third and fourth fouls in the first two minutes of the second half against UConn in the 2023 Elite Eight, and the Huskies turned a 10-point lead into 21 before he got back on the floor.
Huff and Diop did not rack up fouls at particularly alarming rates last season. Huff committed 26 fouls in 457 minutes, or 2.3 per 40. Diop had 67 in 979 minutes, or 2.7. Gonzaga can reasonably expect Huff to play close to 30 minutes a night if the knee holds up, with Diop somewhere in the mid-20s next to him. That still leaves 25 or so frontcourt minutes for somebody else every game, before a bad whistle, an opponent’s matchup plan or a night where Diop gets stuck trying to cover every drive at the rim.
That is where Almansa comes in. He is 6-foot-10, 230 pounds and can play at either the power forward or center position, which gives Few a player he can use next to either starter on any given night. If Huff gets two early fouls, Almansa can play the four alongside Diop without pushing Diop into a bigger offensive role. If Diop gets two trying to protect the rim, Almansa can play next to Huff and keep Gonzaga from immediately going small while also getting a boost on the glass. Almansa’s job is not to come in as an enforcer because the Zags suddenly have fouls to give. It is to make the first two fouls on our starting bigs less disruptive than they have been in the past.
Final Thoughts
Parker Jefferson and Sam Funches give Gonzaga other options, but neither offers much certainty yet. Jefferson is a 6-foot-9, 240-pound sophomore who redshirted last season, leaving his place in the rotation almost entirely theoretical. He has the body to hold up around the basket. He just has not played a college minute. Funches arrives as a four-star, 7-foot freshman from Mississippi, listed at 205 pounds. The tools are there, but asking a first-year center that thin to take frontcourt minutes against Purdue, Duke or an older Pac-12 lineup is a different calculation.gozags+3
That leaves Almansa as the only known quantity behind Huff and Diop. Gonzaga does not need him to win a starting job. It needs him to make the rotation work over the full season: take some of the rebounding burden off two starters who have not carried it at a high rate, give Few a big, physical option at either spot, and keep the frontcourt from becoming an emergency the first time foul trouble arrives.
Xaivian Lee is still the most exciting and most important addition Gonzaga made this offseason, because the Zags cannot run this offense without a point guard. But Almansa may be the clearance that determines whether Huff and Diop remain a spectacular starting frontcourt on paper or become a frontcourt that can actually hold up through a full season.
