Gonzaga’s Graham Ike earns Blue Ribbon Yearbook preseason All-American honors

All-WCC forward was tabbed with preseason All-American third team honors by college basketball yearbook Blue Ribbon

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Gonzaga men’s basketball forward Graham Ike is a Blue Ribbon Yearbook preseason third-team All-American, the publication announced Tuesday.

Ike, a 6-foot-9 redshirt senior, was an All-WCC forward and among the 10 finalists for the Karl Malone Power Forward award last season. He was also named a 2023-24 All-American honorable mention by the Associated Press and one of the best transfer players in the country according to CBS Sports.

Ike’s first official honor of the 2024-25 preseason sees him earn a spot on Blue Ribbon’s All-America third team alongside Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner, Saint Louis’ Robbie Avila, Houston’s J’Wan Roberts and Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey.

The first team features four AP All-Americans from a year ago. Highly touted Duke freshman Cooper Flagg appeared on the second team, while a pair of former Zags — Oumar Ballo and Hunter Sallis — were named to the fourth team.

Here is a look at the rest of Blue Ribbon’s First, Second and Fourth teams.

First team:
- Hunter Dickinson (Kansas)
- Alex Karaban (UConn)
- RJ Davis (North Carolina)
- Caleb Love (Arizona)
- Mark Sears (Alabama)

Second team:
- Johni Broome (Auburn)
- Cooper Flagg (Duke)
- Wade Taylor IV (Texas A&M)
- Zakai Zegler (Tennessee)
- Braden Smith (Purdue)

Fourth team:
- Oumar Ballo (Indiana)
- Great Osobor (Washington)
- Yaxel Lendeborg (UAB)
- Hunter Sallis (Wake Forest)
- LJ Cryer (Houston)

As of now, the Bulldogs could face up to three Blue Ribbon preseason All-Americans over the course of the 2024-25 season. Gonzaga could see Ballo and Indiana on day two of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, with the potential to play Love and Arizona on day three in the championship/consolation game.

The Zags tangle with Karaban and the back-to-back champion Huskies on Dec. 14 at Madison Square Garden. The 6-foot-8 forward had 11 points in UConn’s 76-63 win over Gonzaga at Seattle last season and 12 points in the Elite Eight matchup just a few months prior to that.

Coming off a foot injury that kept him out of the 2022-23 campaign at Wyoming, Ike went through an adjustment phase during his first few months with the Bulldogs. As his connection with Ryan Nembhard grew stronger, Ike dominated in West Coast Conference play, as he became the sixth player in the league’s history to lead the way in both points per game (18.4) and field goal percentage (64.0%) in conference-only games. He had 20 or more points in nine of the team’s final 12 games and had 15 20-point games on the season.

Ike figures to be a focal point of Mark Few’s offense once again in 2024-25. The Zags returned seven of the team’s top eight scorers from last season’s Sweet 16 squad and added a handful of transfers in the portal to round out the rotation.

Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook's annual publication has been widely regarded for its preseason rankings and team previews since it first started in 1981. ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi served as managing editor in 1996 and first coined the term "bracketology" in Blue Ribbon's special tournament edition.