Roughly 72 hours in the Pacific Northwest gave Sam Funches an idea of what life might look like if the four-star center from Mississippi decides to commit to Gonzaga in the near future.
Funches’ official visit coincided with a pleasant fall weekend, with temperatures ranging from the mid-60’s to low-70’s. Those conditions were a stark, and welcomed, contrast to the warm and sticky weather Funches often experiences living just north of Jackson, Mississippi.
“It’s a beautiful area and as far as the weather goes, y’all’s sun is just happy to be there,” Funches said Monday during a phone interview. “Our sun is just beaming us every day. Y’all’s sun is happy to be in Spokane and our sun is just punishing us for our sins, it’s crazy.
“It’s like 100 degrees every day. Way more humid, we’ve got all these big bugs just flying in our faces.”
Another thing that struck Funches during his weekend in Spokane: all the trophies lying on the floor.
During Kraziness in the Kennel introductions, Gonzaga’s cheer team transported about 20 of the program’s NCAA Tournament and WCC trophies to the court at McCarthey Athletic Center, neatly laying them across the hardwood surface.
But that’s not what Funches is referring to.
Earlier in the day, he was touring basketball facilities when Funches made a pit stop to Mark Few’s office. The same way dirty laundry might cover the floor of a cluttered college dorm room, postseason trophies highlighting GU’s run of success under Few were scattered all across the coach’s office.
“It was trophies on the floor, then you go right outside of his office and you see all the teams he’s coached,” Funches said. “Then you see all the banners and stuff. Who knows how many Sweet 16s, two Final Fours, I don’t know how many Elite Eights, but it’s crazy. At least it’s good to know you’re playing for a winning team.”
Gonzaga had already checked a few key boxes for Funches by the time he settled into a baseline seat with his parents for Kraziness in the Kennel.
Widely considered a top-10 center in the 2026 recruiting class, Funches heard plenty about GU’s impressive lineage of big men during conversations with assistants R-Jay Barsh and Brian Michaelson that ramped up in recent months. The Zags have developed many of the top post players in the nation during Few’s tenure and continue to play through the center spot in an era when most college and NBA teams have shifted to guard- and wing-oriented offenses.
Funches had an idea of what GU’s system looked like and saw it firsthand when “Blue” and “White” teams took the floor for an abbreviated scrimmage near the end of Saturday’s program.
“I looked at that stat sheet and Braden Huff and Graham Ike shot 22 of the team’s 39 shots,” Funches said. “You had (Ike) take the ball down the floor like four times. It’s a great style of play because it lets the big man play freely, which doesn’t really happen anymore.”
GU’s student section had been looped in on Funches’ visit, serenading the 17-year-old with a “We want Funches, we want Funches” chant on two different occasions Saturday.
“I loved it. I loved it,” he said. “It makes you feel wanted and I love their culture of basketball. Basketball is like our football (in Mississippi).”
Funches, who trimmed his list of colleges down to 10 in June, indicated he’s nearing a decision and hopes to announce a commitment in the next three weeks. Along with Gonzaga, he’s already seen Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, California and Kansas, and will to LSU this weekend for his final visit.
Once he returns from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Funches said he’ll spend a week or two evaluating his options before revealing his plans “when everything dies down.”
There could be a few things working in Gonzaga’s favor as Few’s staff hopes to lock down its second pledge in the ’26 class after landing a commitment from German combo guard Jack Kayil last week.
Name Image Likeness (NIL) didn’t come up in discussions between Funches and GU’s coaching staff and compensation won’t be a key factor in the center’s decision-making process.
“They probably talked about it with my parents,” Funches said, “but I’m just looking at the NBA.”
Along those same lines, Funches isn’t too concerned about location and would be willing to leave the south if he’s going somewhere that will prioritize his development and provide the tools necessary to reach the next level.
“Location’s not going to matter for me and I’m sure they know that too because if I make it to the league, I’m going to be all over the place anyway,” Funches said. “So I don’t think it really matters.”
The top-rated player in Mississippi, Funches received an offer from Gonzaga in April of 2024, but his relationship with Barsh dates back more than three years, when the third-year assistant was still at Florida State. Funches was participating at Team USA’s U-16 minicamp in Colorado Springs, Colorado, when Barsh overheard the young player conducting an interview.
“I thought nothing of it,” Funches said, “but he just said the way I answered the questions, he can coach a guy like me.”
A skilled lefty with a 7-foot-5 wingspan, Funches said college coaches have compared his frame and play style to that of Cleveland Cavaliers/former USC standout Evan Mobley and ex-Miami Heat/Toronto Raptors star Chris Bosh.
During his Gonzaga visit, coaches compiled his statistics from the Puma AAU circuit Funches recently competed in. He made 39.3% of his 3-pointers over the summer and said he’d like to clear the 40% mark during his senior season at Germantown (Miss.) High School.
“I was right there,” he said.
Funches arrived back home at 1 a.m. Central on Monday morning and recalled a few other highlights from his trip to Spokane, where Ike, Huff and Jalen Warley were his primary hosts. After Kraziness, Funches joined a handful of GU players for a bowling trip Saturday evening.
He finished with the third-highest score, at 110, but couldn’t keep up with a graduate assistant who posted a score of 143, or Steele Venters, who impressively rolled a “160-something” hours after winning the 3-point contest at Kraziness and knocking down a trio of 3’s during the scrimmage.
“I started off terrible, because I use my three fingers and then I switched to just palming the ball,” Funches said. “Then I rolled two strikes in a row and I just started feeling it.”