Gonzaga's Graham Ike named preseason All-American by Sporting News

Third preseason honor for Gonzaga forward

The national honors continue to roll in for Gonzaga men's basketball, as 6-foot-9 forward Graham Ike was named a preseason All-American by Sporting News on Monday.

Ike joined the prestigious five-man team along with Duke's Kyle Filipowski, Purdue's Zach Edey, USC's Boogie Ellis and Marquette's Tyler Kolek. Former Gonzaga big man and current Arizona Wildcat center Oumar Ballo was named to the All-American second team. Eight of the 15 players across the three teams were either listed as either a forward or center.

Prior to the season opener, Ike was also named to the preseason watch list for the Karl Malone Award, which goes out to the nation's top power forward, as well as the preseason All-WCC team.

Ike racked up the early-season honors after a dominant sophomore season at Wyoming in 2021-22. He averaged 19.5 points and 9.6 rebounds, a stat line only two other players in the country produced that season, on a Cowboys squad that made it to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in almost two decades. Ike was named the preseason Mountain West Player of the Year last fall before a lower leg injury kept him sidelined for the 2022-23 campaign.

Healthy again, Ike has made strides thus far in his short time at Gonzaga. He finished with a team-high 24 points on 11-for-13 shooting from the field in the exhibition opener against Lewis-Clark State. Ike followed that up with 11 points in 20 minutes to help Gonzaga beat Yale in the home opener last Friday.

While the Zags' frontcourt is deep, Ike is expected to be on the court more frequently as the season progresses.

"Obviously we're gonna count on him to play more minutes than he did [against Lewis-Clark State]," Few said after the Bulldogs' win over the Warriors on Nov. 3. "But hopefully we can keep kind of building that thing up to where he can get it to 25 and 28-30 minutes."

Gonzaga is back in action on Tuesday against NAIA opponent Eastern Oregon.

Men's college basketball rankings: Gonzaga stays at No. 11 in AP Top 25 poll