With a cell phone recording in his right hand, Tyon Grant-Foster stretched his right arm out to make sure he could capture every angle of the pep rally unfolding in front of Gonzaga\u2019s McCarthey Athletic Center.<\/p>\n
Once he was inside, Grant-Foster snuck away from teammates to make a quick FaceTime call, giving someone on his phone screen a virtual tour as the arena began to fill up roughly an hour before Gonzaga\u2019s marquee preseason event started.<\/p>\n
Then came Grant-Foster\u2019s formal introduction at Kraziness in the Kennel \u2013 a moment five months in the making, but one that was never guaranteed.<\/p>\n
No phone this time, but still a snapshot to savor as the transfer walked through a billow of artificial smoke to a loud applause, waving his left hand to the sellout crowd before joining a line of Gonzaga teammates near center court.<\/p>\n
Grant-Foster\u2019s NCAA waiver process still hasn\u2019t crossed the finish line, but the former Grand Canyon standout made a step toward debuting for Gonzaga earlier in the week when he was cleared to practice with the Zags.<\/p>\n
Saturday felt like another significant stride for Grant-Foster, who wasn\u2019t scheduled to arrive in Spokane at the start of the week, let alone participate in the 20-minute intrasquad scrimmage that took place at the end of Kraziness.\u201cWe weren\u2019t planning on playing him today, but he kind of wanted to do it,\u201d Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. \u201cI mean he\u2019s only had two practices trying to figure out what we\u2019re doing on offense and defense. But yeah, it\u2019s been definitely nice to finally get him up here and get him around the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Zags anticipate the basketball portion will come in time, so long as Grant-Foster\u2019s competitive eligibility waiver is processed at some point before the team opens the season on Nov. 3 against Texas Southern.<\/p>\n
Grant-Foster was in the starting lineup for the \u201cWhite\u201d team and totaled 14 minutes. He looked rusty at times, but the final stat line \u2013 zero points on 0 of 4 from the field with two assists and one turnover \u2013 hardly felt consequential for someone who will spend the coming weeks building chemistry with teammates, learning Gonzaga\u2019s system and solidifying his role with the 2025-26 group.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels great to have Tyon here,\u201d senior forward Graham Ike said. \u201cHe\u2019s the piece our team needed, brings great energy, great effort and he\u2019s really eager to play with us. Just learn the way that we play and just have a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s festivities were a positive reprieve for the 25-year-old transfer who\u2019d already been through a handful of physical and emotional setbacks as a college basketball player before spending seven months in limbo with the NCAA, unsure if or when the sport\u2019s governing body would approve his eligibility waiver.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust smiling from ear to ear since he\u2019s been here, man,\u201d Ike said. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to bring him along slowly but surely. Rome wasn\u2019t built in a day, but it was built. So we\u2019ll build it with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonzaga coach Mark Few acknowledged the frustrations most in the program have felt awaiting word from the NCAA on Grant-Foster\u2019s waiver. He also said the GU hasn\u2019t been given a timeline on when to expect a final decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what we expect,\u201d Few said. \u201cObviously the timing\u2019s super frustrating, but it\u2019s kind of the way it goes with these things so. They (the NCAA) have their own pace about them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a cell phone recording in his right hand, Tyon Grant-Foster stretched his right arm out to make…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":278685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-278684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115319562111796104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}