The dude was so much more for Gonzaga than a defensive specialist and his ceiling for 2025-26 could be sky high.
The 2024-2025 season for Emmanuel Innocenti deserves a second look. Although he spent last season deservedly known as a lock-down defensive specialist who could hold down the middle of the floor, the numbers, the tape, and the effectiveness of the Innocenti-intensive lineups all point to a larger truth: he was a better offensive player than he got credit for and his ceiling may be even higher than fans realize.
Innocenti was the key that unlocked Gonzaga’s rhythm in the second half of last season, and he’s poised for an even bigger role in 2025-2026. That’s a lot to be excited about. With all things Innocenti, there’s a lot more going on and a lot more worth celebrating than there appears. Gonzaga’s backcourt questions remain plentiful, but a closer look at the Italian recruit may give reason to suspect that some of them may already be answered.
From Deep Cuts in Rome to Full Minutes in the WAC
Before arriving at Gonzaga, Innocenti spent four years with Stella Azzurra Roma—one of Italy’s top youth programs—where he developed as a physical, multi-role wing with a strong rebounding presence and early court awareness. In 2022–23, he played for the U18 Italian National Team and averaged 11.1 points and 7.1 rebounds across seven games, closing the tournament with a double-double against France. The scoring wasn’t volume-driven, but it was steady and functional—he played within the offense and rarely forced the issue.
That translated cleanly to his freshman season at Tarleton State, where he scored in double figures eight times and finished the year averaging 6.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game. He shot over 40 percent from the field and 31 percent from three. He played all 35 games, started 33, and logged 1,109 minutes—the most by a freshman in the program’s Division I era. In WAC play, he averaged 33.8 minutes per game, ranked top-10 in the league in both assists and rebounds, and led his team in steals.
His reputation as a defensive menace preceded him to his first year in Spokane, but his ability to function within an offense may have been overlooked.
A Role Player on Paper, a Difference Maker in Reality
In the first half of Gonzaga’s 2024–25 season, Innocenti’s role was clearly defined. He was a defensive asset—tough, lateral, disruptive—and an energy piece off the bench who could guard three positions and make opposing guards uncomfortable in space whether the Zags were in man coverage or zone. On offense, he stayed within himself: spot-up threes when open, and clean ball movement to reset the offense as necessary. He finished the year with 30 assists to just six turnovers—a 5:1 ratio technically good for 4th best in the nation (though the sample size is limited) and committed just two turnovers in the final 10 games of the season.
Innocenti averaged just 1.7 points and 1.0 assist in 12.2 minutes per game and shot 34.5 percent from the field in his debut season with the Zags. Modest numbers on the surface, but they also reflected someone who rarely made the kind of mistakes young players struggling to carve out a role for themselves tend to make. He attempted 58 threes and made 20 of them, and you can count on one hand the number of those long balls that didn’t come within the flow of the offense. He took the right shots, took care of the ball, and facilitated beautifully from the perimeter. In short, he did exactly what was asked of him offensively and he did it with the kind composure and hustle that gets rewarded in Few’s system. I am willing to bet also that Ryan Nembhard doesn’t become one of the nation’s assist leaders without daily sparring against Innocenti, a guy whose defense won games for the Bulldogs last season.
When the Moment Got Louder, So Did His Game
Innocenti was not an offensive liability. On the contrary, he played some of his best, most efficient basketball in Gonzaga’s toughest games. According to BartTorvik, six of his ten most best offensive performances in terms of the box-score +/- were against Houston, Indiana, UCLA, USF, and both regular-season matchups with Saint Mary’s. He posted an offensive rating of a staggering 254.1 against Houston (his highest of the season), 207.1 in one of the Saint Mary’s losses, and 135 against UCLA. Those were games where Gonzaga’s offense struggled to find its rhythm, and Innocenti responded with clean movement, smart spacing, and zero panic. He wasn’t a bucket, he was a calm center around which the offense could revolve when things got hairy in the half court.
Against Houston, it was his instinctive ability to move without the ball that helped clear space for Gonzaga’s interior game, particularly when Huff and Ike were involved in pick-and-roll and seal-post actions. He played with control and spacing in a halfcourt setting where every screen and cut had to land on time. His best games weren’t blowouts in the scoring column—they were heavy possessions against elite defenses, and there were plenty of nights where his offensive decision-making was one of the lone bright spots for a team that struggled mightily to get its backcourt firing on all cylinders simultaneously.
Fit, Function, and the Case for Bigger Minutes
Gonzaga’s offense will have no shortage of firepower this season. ASU transfer Adam Miller shot 43 percent from deep last season for the Sun Devils and has made a career on drawing closeouts high and wide, creating open lanes before the ball even starts to move. Innocenti doesn’t need a look at the basket to take advantage—he relocates out of the corner, delivers entry passes on time, and keeps the ball ahead of the rotation. Most importantly, he rebounds in space and gives the Zags second-chance opportunities.
There’s also a version of this year’s lineup—likely rare, but not out of the question—where Gonzaga doubles down on its defense and allows Innocenti to share the floor with Jalen Warley, himself a defensive nightmares for opposing backcourts. Innocenti complements that with short-close anticipation and the ability to fight through screens without forcing a switch. Together, they change what Gonzaga can do defensively. It’s length, timing, and recovery at the guard spots. It’s coverage that bends without breaking.
Couple this defensive firepower with Graham Ike and Braden Huff—two of the most efficient interior scorers in college basketball—and a player like Innocenti becomes even more pronounced. He’s not there to initiate, but he helps everything run through to the second and third action. Whether he’s playing twelve minutes or twenty-five, his effect on the floor is structural. And if the shot comes around or the finishing improves, the ceiling on that role could be even higher than our best-case-scenario predictions.
He Might Not Start, But He’ll Matter
There are a couple ways to contextualize Innocenti within the recent history of Gonzaga basketball. The most natural comparison is probably Joel Ayayi—another long European backcourt piece who elevated the system by somehow always being in the right place at the right time. In his breakout year with the Zags, Ayayi averaged over 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists per game. That’s not the kind of scoring volume that will be expected of Innocenti, but the off-ball awareness, the rebounding from the perimeter, the unselfish passing, the ability to create rhythm without needing the ball—those parallels are a lot to be excited about.
Similarly, Gonzaga has had some elite on-ball guards like Hunter Sallis and Gary Bell Jr., but Innocenti operates differently. He finds ways to be defensively disruptive from the middle of the floor, anchoring the defensive spacing of all 4 other guys on the floor. He fights through screens, rotates early, plugs passing lanes, and reads actions before they unfold. His hustle and vision were vital last year in the full-court press Gonzaga came to rely on more and more as the season wore on. Innocenti’s impact builds possession by possession, and not just on the defensive side.
Most fans expect Innocenti to come off the bench once again, and there’s reason to suspect that will remain unchanged. But the question heading into 2025–26 isn’t whether Innocenti belongs in the rotation—it’s where the Zags will slot him in. He could play the two behind Adam Miller. He could play the three behind Jalen Warley or Steele Venters (or Davis Fogle, for that matter). He could be a defensive stopper and anchor the zone. He could be a floor-spacer and distributor. He could be the guy who tips the momentum of a possession without needing to touch the ball twice. The offensive ceiling isn’t theoretical—it’s already visible in Innocenti’s IQ and ability to restore order to broken actions. For Gonzaga, the rotation puzzle isn’t confounding, it’s thrilling.
And as he always seems to be, Emmanuel Innocenti is right in the middle of the whole thing.