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Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs were dealt a devastating blow on Saturday morning.
Mario Saint-Supery, the team's starting point guard and a player widely expected to break out as a sophomore, is leaving the program after agreeing to a deal with Valencia Basket in the ACB.
The deal is said to be for four years, with Saint-Supery set to replace Sergio De Larrea, who left Valencia for the NBA draft - where he was selected No.
25 overall and landed on the Dallas Mavericks.
Saint-Supery becomes the second major loss for Gonzaga's backcourt, after German guard Jack Kayil opted to stay in the NBA draft rather than honor his commitment to the program from back in October.
Kayil ended up falling into the second round, going No.
39 overall to the New York Knicks - who are planning to stash him back in Germany for the upcoming season.
Mario's time at Gonzaga Saint-Supery committed to Gonzaga a little over a year ago, arriving in Spokane in late June 2025.
He then missed about a month of training time to represent Spain at EuroBasket - becoming the youngest player on Spain's National Team since Ricky Rubio in 2008.
Saint-Supery then settled into a timeshare at point guard for the Zags with Braeden Smith, eventually securing a bigger share of the minutes toward the end of the season.
The 6'3 point guard averaged 8.6 points, 3.8 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 23.1 minutes per game as a freshman, shooting 41.8% on twos and a team-leading 40.3% from beyond the arc.
He was the catalyst for Gonzaga's WCC Tournament championship win over Santa Clara, dropping a career-high 21 points with five rebounds and four assists, while shooting 6-12 from beyond the arc in the 79-68 victory.
The Zags were set up to give him the reins completely in 2026-27, where he'd facilitate an offense featuring returners Davis Fogle and Braden Huff, as well as transfer additions Massamba Diop and Isiah Harwell.
What now? Saint-Supery's departure comes at a critical time for Gonzaga, which now has to scramble to find more guard depth in mid-July when the vast majority of players have already committed.
Gonzaga recently landed a commitment from 23-year-old French point guard Nathan De Sousa, who is now in line to take over starting duties for the Zags.
De Sousa, Harwell, and Fogle are joined by freshmen Luca Foster and Juwan Ekanga-Ehawa in the backcourt, although none of them have real point guard experience.
Skylar Wicks, a 26-year-old transfer from St.
Francis, committed to Gonzaga pending a waiver for eligibility.
He's 6'6, but has experience playing on the ball and could handle some of those responsibilities if he does get cleared.
With the departure, Gonzaga now has two open roster spots to fill ahead of the 2026-27 season, which begins on Nov.
2 when the Zags take on Purdue at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Andy Patton is a diehard fan and alumnus of Gonzaga, graduating in 2013.
Hes been the host of the Locked On Zags podcast covering Gonzaga basketball since 2021, and one of two co-hosts on the Locked On College Basketball podcast since 2022.
In addition to covering college basketball, Andy has dabbled in sports writing and podcasting across nearly every major sport dating back to 2017.
He was a beat writer covering the Seattle Seahawks from 20172021 for USA TODAY, where he also spent one year each covering the USC Trojans and Oregon Ducks, and had a stint as the lead writer for College Sports Wire.
Andy has also written about the NBA, NHL, and MLB for various news outlets through TEGNA, including KREM in Spokane, CBS8 in San Diego, and KING 5 in Seattle.
After stints in Spokane and Seattle, Andy is back in Oregon near his hometown with his wife, daughter, and dog.
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