Gonzaga's Kraziness in the Kennel set for Oct. 5

Bulldogs will hold annual preseason event with five-star recruit in attendance

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Gonzaga men’s basketball fans will get their first look at the 2024-25 Bulldogs during the annual Kraziness in the Kennel event that’s been set for Saturday, Oct. 5, Gonzaga Nation confirmed. 

This year’s Kraziness will feature 10 players from last season’s Sweet 16 team, including four of the five starters, along with six newcomers competing in individual challenges and an intrasquad scrimmage. Previous iterations have had players go head-to-head in 3-point shootouts, dunk contests and skills challenges before splitting up into two teams for a competitive 20-minute scrimmage as the highlight of the university’s Fall Family Weekend. 

Last year, Croatian guard Luka Krajnovic won the skills challenge and helped “White” take down “Blue,” 52-38, in the scrimmage. Nolan Hickman outlasted Braden Huff in a thrilling 3-point shootout, though the 6-foot-10 post redeemed himself with a solid performance in the scrimmage. 

With the unofficial start to the college basketball season around the corner, here’s what to know about the 2024 Kraziness event.

5-STAR RECRUIT IN ATTENDANCE

Kraziness has been a strong recruiting vehicle over the past few years — Chet Holmgren, Jalen Suggs and Julian Strawther, among others, left their visits with a solid impression, to say the least — and the trend will continue this fall when five-star recruit Kingston Flemings takes his official visit with Gonzaga during that first weekend in October.

Flemings, a 6-foot-3, 165-pound guard from San Antonio, Texas, was among the notable standouts from the PRO16 circuit in Arizona last month, as college coaches lined up to see his elite scoring and ability to dictate the pace of the game, blow by defenders and use his athleticism to finish at the rim. As a junior at Brennan High School (Texas), he led the boy’s basketball team to the regional semifinals of the UIL state tournament this past season. Flemings averaged 17.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals to lead the Bears to a 31-5 overall record and a16-0 showing in 6A district play. 

Flemings, a top 25 recruit in the 2025 class, is slated to visit Texas from Sept. 6-8 and Houston over Labor Day weekend. Flemings also holds offers from Vanderbilt, BYU, Alabama, Baylor and Kansas. 

NEWCOMERS TO WATCH

There are a handful of new faces set to make their unofficial Gonzaga debuts at the 2024 Kraziness event.

Michael Ajayi, a 6-foot-7 All-WCC wing with Pepperdine last season, is a candidate to start on the wing after leading the West Coast Conference with 17.2 points per game and shooting 47.0% from downtown in his first season of Division-I basketball. The former JUCO star will contend for minutes with Steele Venters, who missed all of last season with an ACL injury, and Dusty Stromer, now a sophomore who started half of his games as a freshman. Along with Jun Seok Yeo, the Zags have plenty of depth at the small forward spot.

In the backcourt, Arkansas grad transfer Khalif Battle, Colgate transfer Braeden Smith and Tarleton State transfer Emmanuel Innocenti join Ryan Nembhard and Nolan Hickman. Smith will redshirt, opening up more opportunities for Battle, who scored 29.6 points per game in his last seven games with the Razorbacks, and Innocenti, a defensive specialist. The depth alone is a massive boost for Hickman and Nembhard, who ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the WCC for percentage of total minutes played last season, according to KenPom.com.

Factor in Battle’s scoring prowess and Innocenti’s defensive versatility, Gonzaga’s backcourt is much more well-rounded than it was a year ago.

Don’t forget incoming freshman Ismaila Diagne, though it’s nearly impossible to miss the 7-foot center. The Real Madrid import has made an early impression in summer practices as a rim protector, according to Huff, and is always posing as a lob threat in transition. Kraziness will be a prime opportunity for Diagne to create some excitement as a freshman, even if it means serving a limited role off the bench in the regular season.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for 2024 Kraziness have not gone public yet. Last year, a limited amount of free tickets were made available on Oct. 3 and were sold out not long after they went online. Fans have been able to claim tickets with their GoZags.com account in the past.

Follow Gonzaga Bulldogs on SI for full coverage of the 2024 Kraziness in the Kennel event, including ticket information, how to watch from home, video highlights, analysis and more.