Will Gonzaga freshman Dusty Stromer crack Mark Few's rotation in 2023-24?
All eyes are on Dusty Stromer.
The lone member of the Gonzaga Bulldogs' 2023 recruiting class, Stromer is hoping to play a significant role for the Zags during his freshman campaign.
Playing in the spotlight isn't anything new to Stromer. The 6-foot-6 guard competed against some of the best high school prospects in California while attending Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. Following his historic career as a Knight, Stromer comes to Gonzaga where he'll likely be Mark Few's main option for wing depth off the bench.
Stromer, the No. 62-ranked recruit in the 2023 class according to 247Sports, has come a long way from being the tall, gangly 3-point shooter he was during his freshman year of high school. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided to sit out Notre Dame's abbreviated 2021 spring basketball season to instead hone his craft on his own time with his trainer. After months of not playing organized basketball, Stromer returned to the hardwood later that summer for Section 7, an NCAA-sanctioned recruiting event in Arizona that runs every year in June.
And the rest is history.
"He killed it at Section 7," said SBLive senior reporter Tarek Fattal, who covered Stromer throughout his four years at Notre Dame. "And then here we go, the prominence of Dusty Stromer began."
Stromer showcased his sharpshooting, handles and unexpected bounce to college coaches in attendance. He parlayed the tournament performance with a junior season that saw him take home the Mission League MVP. All of a sudden, he had 16 Division I offers including Gonzaga, UCLA, Houston and Arizona.
As a senior, Stromer helped Notre Dame earn its first league championship in 21 years. Along with Duke commit Caleb Foster and Houston commit Mercy Miller, Stromer and the Knights bested Bronny James and Sierra Canyon in the California Interscholastic Federation playoffs to cap off Stromer's high school career.
In addition to James (No. 22-ranked recruit by 247Sports), Stromer competed against the likes of Memphis commit Ashton Hardaway, St. John's commit Brady Dunlap, Harvard commit Robert Hinton and Trent Perry, a four-star recruit in the 2024 class, to name a few.
Now three inches taller and 15 pounds heavier since his freshman year of high school, Stromer is more capable of competing on the defensive end of the floor on top of shooting the lights out on offense.
"He can for sure shoot it, his handle is pretty good, but he's a very underrated athlete and defender. That's what's going to get him on the floor [at Gonzaga]," Fattal said. "For a guard or perimeter player, he loves to challenge other players at the rim."
He might not be tasked with guarding point guards, but his length and size will serve him well against other "2" guards and small forwards. Along with his progress defensively, Stromer's offensive game took another leap his senior year when he showed more playmaking off the dribble. It's unlikely he'll be forced to handle the rock a lot as a freshman, but it's an area that will steadily improve.
Stromer has drawn comparisons to former Gonzaga standouts Corey Kispert and Julian Strawther, both of whom were first-round picks in the NBA draft after steadily progressing throughout their time in Spokane. Kispert took a leap as someone who could play off the dribble, while Strawther developed his floater game on top of being a knockdown shooter. For Stromer, developing both areas of the game for his arsenal will certainly elevate Gonzaga's offense this season.