Mark Few just wasn’t sure. He went back and forth, back and forth, watching the new guard bumble through practices. Yes, the Gonzaga men's coach could see the talent, the versatility, the flashes that made Joel Ayayi a legitimate prospect at the French sports institute. But Ayayi had arrived at school early, in 2017, fresh off leading France to a third-place finish in the U-18 European Championships. He was young, skinny and, by his own admission, overwhelmed. “Initially, I didn’t know that he would be good enough to play here,” Few says, candidly, four years later.
Ayayi was good enough, turns out, not only to play at Gonzaga but also to start and star and become an unlikely catalyst for a team pursuing the first undefeated season in men’s college basketball in 45 years.