Getty Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Rui Hachimura
The No. 4 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs and star forward Rui Hachimura are set for a date with a conference foe in the BYU Cougars on Thursday night. This marks the first of the two matchups between the teams this season. Gonzaga enters the game with a 19-2 record with their only losses coming against current top-10 teams in the Tennessee Volunteers (No. 1) and North Carolina Tar Heels (No. 9).
While BYU has dealt with an up-and-down season with a few tough losses, they sit at 13-9 but have won four of their last five games. The Cougars are also tied for second place in the West Coast Conference at 5-2, but trail Gonzaga by two games. BYU has lost just twice at home all season with one coming at the hands of the now-No. 13 ranked Houston Cougars.
We’re going to take a look at Gonzaga’s roster and starting lineup ahead of the key conference matchup while also evaluating the current draft stock of Hachimura.
Gonzaga Roster & Starting Lineup vs. BYU
| Position | Expected Starter | Reserves | |
| Forward | Rui Hachimura | Killian Tillie | |
| Forward | Brandon Clarke | Jeremy Jones | |
| Forward | Corey Kispert | Filip Petrusev | |
| Guard | Josh Perkins | Geno Crandall | Greg Foster Jr./Jack Beach |
| Guard | Zach Norvell Jr. | Joey Ajayi | Matthew Lang/Alex Martin |
Latest on Rui Hachimura’s NBA Draft Stock
Hachimura has quickly proven to be one of the more talented and well-rounded players in college basketball. He’s progressively taken steps forward in his career, improving numbers across the board each year. This has led to a 2018-19 season in which Hachimura is averaging 19.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting an impressive 59.8 percent from the field.
With the NBA draft slowly but surely creeping closer, the Gonzaga star’s stock has stayed high and seems likely to remain that way. While a few analysts and mock drafts have Hachimura as a top-five pick, most have him hanging around the top-10.
The latest mock draft from Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Woo has the Bulldogs forward coming off the board at No. 11 to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He’s not necessarily a sexy pick, but just looking at his rate of improvement over the course of the past year, there’s reason to think he can help a team as a rebounder and supporting frontcourt scorer. Hachimura’s jump shooting has progressed to the point where he could thrive without needing heavy offensive usage, and he will be able to keep up athletically and strength-wise with no issue.
Beyond that, Bryan Kalbrosky of Hoops Hype broke down an aggregated mock draft which features the latest projections for top players from six different sites. This list includes NBADraft.net (4), ESPN (13), Sports Illustrated (11), The Athletic (13) and Bleacher Report (20). Based on the current projections, this has Hachimura with an overall rank of No. 11 as well.
The mock from NBADraft.net, which has Hachimura the highest, projects only Williamson, Ja Morant and RJ Barrett coming off the board before him.
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