SPOKANE, Wash. — "We have another young man named Brock Ravet, who's the all-time leading scorer in the history of the state of Washington, so we're counting on him to provide some minutes and some help there."
That's what Mark Few had to say before the season started about Kittitas' Brock Ravet.
Less than a month later, Ravet took an indefinite leave of absence for personal reasons. There's been a lot of news around the point guard position at GU the past few days, so let's break it all down.
BROCK RAVET LEAVES GU
Gonzaga confirmed to KREM exclusively on Sunday that Ravet has left the team, saying in a statement, "Brock has made a personal decision to no longer be with the program."
Between Gonzaga's game on Dec. 30 against Detriot Mercy and their game against Portland on Jan. 2, Ravet was removed from the roster. The name plate on his locker was also taken off in late December.
No reason other than personal reasons has been given the entire time of Ravet's absence.
He left Kittitas last year as the leading scorer in Washington high school basketball history, and obviously as evidenced by Few's quote, there was some expectation that he would see the court this year for the Zags. However, that never happened as Ravet left right before the Bulldogs' exhibition game against Lewis-Clark State.
JALEN SUGGS COMMITS TO GONZAGA
Within a few days of Brock officially leaving, Gonzaga also got some good news at the point guard position. On Friday, Jan.3, Jalen Suggs verbally committed to Gonzaga on national television.
In no way do I want to link Suggs commitment and Ravet's exit together. This certainly looks like two separate events that just happened to coincide in the same week.
If you've paid attention to Twitter in the last few months, Suggs' commitment to Gonzaga was hardly a surprise. All signs pointed to him coming to GU months ago.
But I will say that Ravet's playing time at point guard would have been impacted by Suggs commitment if Ravet were still on the team.
Suggs is ranked the No. 3 combo guard in the nation by 247 Sports and is the highest-rated recruit Gonzaga has ever gotten. He's pretty much assumed to be the starter next year at the point guard position for the Bulldogs.
Now, there is a chance that Suggs still decides to go the professional route. Things will at least feel a little more certain once Suggs signs his letter of intent, but the next time basketball players can sign is in mid-April.
Gonzaga fans will have to be patient and hope Suggs doesn't have a change of heart.
POINT GUARD POSITION OUTLOOK
I've already said that Jalen Suggs is the presumed starter next year at point guard. Let's look at Gonzaga's depth as a whole at the position.
With Ravet out, Gonzaga currently only has two point guards on their roster next year as Ryan Woolridge and Admon Gilder graduate. The two point guards on the roster for next season are Jalen Suggs and Joel Ayayi.
Ayayi has thrived at the two guard position this season. I don't see Mark Few taking him out of that role to back up Suggs off the bench. He hasn't done it this year with Ayayi and Woolridge, so there's no reason to do it next year either.
Gonzaga commit Dominick Harris can also play a bit of point guard, so I could see him spelling Suggs at times.
I also would not be surprised if Gonzaga went out and got another grad transfer a la Gilder, who can play the two but take over the point guard position at times.
If Suggs somehow decided he wanted to play overseas though, that throws everything into a tizzy real quick. Gonzaga would only have one true point guard on the roster with Ayayi. That would be catastrophic.