Nov. 4—The basketball season is just getting started but we're already setting records on the Zags Insiders Podcast with former Gonzaga center and current TV analyst Richard Fox and yours truly.

Off the top of my head, Monday's pod was our longest (1 hour, 1 minute , 7 seconds). No extra charge.

The show covered many of the Zags' hot-button topics: Tyon Grant-Foster's eligibility saga, Saturday's showdown with Oklahoma, starting lineups and rotations. We also made our annual predictions on GU's leading scorer, final record and length of stay in March Madness.

You can listen or watch the entire pod on YouTube under The Spokesman-Review's channel and at The Spokesman-Review website. New shows are posted every Monday throughout the season.

Here are some highlights from Monday's pod (edited for space considerations):

How deep will the rotation go?

Fox: It's just the first time I can remember going into a year I have no real feel for, outside the top two or three, what the rest of the rotation is going to look like. I think we're on to something that it's going to vary quite a bit for a period of time, but you're going to get to a point where you want to start establishing roles, establishing rotations.

The other thing is, the team's identity is going to have an impact on what that rotation looks like. And that's a question I have for the group: What is the identity of this team? That's not a criticism. When you have this much turnover, six guys are gone, five transfers, and you've got two freshmen and I look at (Ismaila) Diagne, who played sparingly last year so really let's count him as a new guy. So you have eight new players. I don't know what their identity is. I don't know if they're going to be a high-level defensive team, a dominant rebounding team, are they going to be a team that shoots a bunch of 3s, are they going to play fast?

An example: If they are a top 10 defensive team in the country that would indicate (Jalen) Warley plays a lot, him and Emmanuel (Innocenti), because those guys are high-end defensive players. If they're solid defensively but one of the best scoring teams in the country, which is what they've always been, then we might be seeing a whole lot more of Mario (Saint-Supery).

Meehan: That rotation doesn't go beyond 7.5 or 8 very often. Warley is going to find a way. He's going to be the first '4' into the game, they're going to rotate him in and get rest for (Graham) Ike or (Braden) Huff. They can use Warley to spell the '4' spot and he's going to get minutes at '3.' He can get minutes at the '2.' The 2 and 3 is pretty much interchangeable to me. You could play Steele (Venters) at the 2, Tyon at the 2. It's what they bring that's the difference.

You can throw the ball to (Grant-Foster), he can go score it. They don't have a ton of guys like that this year, other than the two bigs. If you need a 3 (pointer) and that inside game is really working and Ike and Huff are drawing attention, that kick-out to Steele should be lethal. That kick-out to (Adam) Miller should be lethal. They're going to get open looks.

They almost always play their way into more minutes or play their way out of more minutes. It will become clear. It may not be clear in November and December, but by January and February you will look and go, 'That's why they're playing eight because that's what we saw for a month and saw them in different situations against great teams.' But I do think there's a chance that rotation could go to nine.

Do the Zags win the WCC in their final year?

Fox: I think the bottom half of this league is really bad. San Francisco has legitimate perimeter play. They have real length and athleticism on the perimeter that I think can match Gonzaga better than anybody else in the league. That's not to say they're going to beat (Gonzaga). GU is going to win the league.

Meehan: I have them winning it. I have San Francisco second, which I thought was going to be a hot take but apparently you're of the same mind. I've got Saint Mary's and Santa Clara behind them.

Record, March Madness outcome

Meehan: I have them losing one conference game, three nonconference games, winning the WCC Tournament and going to the Elite Eight. They have a mix that's going to be hard to deal with because they can play different ways. They can play more defensive-minded, more offensive-minded. They can mix it up so they're not vulnerable in either spot. Five losses total.

Fox: I'm going to say they lose four in the nonconference, one in league, one in the NCAAs. I think if they lose four nonconference games and the weakness of the WCC, I have a tough time seeing them being a top four seed. So that means they're going to be somewhere between five and eight. I'm going to say they make it to the Sweet 16 and lose there.

Everybody just heard me think about it for the first time out loud, so let's be kind.

An 18-year-old all-star who was ruled ineligible to play his senior year is considering whether to try for an exemption to play other sports, file a lawsuit in state court, or take other action, according to a hearing in U.S. District Court Monday.

Zavior Ward, the 2024 Interscholastic League of Honolulu boy’s water polo player of the year will decide by next week whether to apply for another exemption from Interscholastic League of Honolulu eligibility requirements so he may participate in volleyball or swimming, his attorney Jeff Portnoy said in federal court Monday morning.

The ILH has never approved an exemption request to the rule that athletes have four years of eligibility starting in the ninth grade.

ILH’s lawyers maintain that Ward knew he would be limited to four years of eligibility and prevented from playing water polo his senior year after transferring from Kalaheo to Hawaii Baptist Academy.

HBA’s president and athletic director signed Ward’s exemption request that stated in part that a first-time admissions director failed to tell Ward before he transferred that repeating the ninth grade would end his athletic eligibility during his senior year.

Ward maintains he never would have transferred if he and his mother were told that before completing the enrollment process.

Ward played for La Pietra Academy in 2024 and their coach allowed Ward to practice with the team this season. Ward was not allowed to play any games. He attends HBA but played for La Pietra because HBA does not have a water polo program.

Portnoy told U.S. District Judge Micah W.J. Smith and attorneys for HBA and the ILH that Ward and his family are considering “various options ” and would make a decision on next steps by Monday.

“They still haven’t reached a decision on the options that we’ve given them. They include … withdrawing the present motion for a preliminary injunction and refiling another motion (seeking to have his eligibility restored for other sports.) They also include dismissing the federal court case and refiling in state court against (HBA, the ILH, or both ), ” said Portnoy.

Portnoy said there was also an issue of an alleged violation of student privacy law after attorneys for the ILH reached out to a university in California to discuss their potential recruitment of Ward.

“We are reviewing that to see if that is a possible claim, ” said Portnoy, noting they will likely withdraw the filing that Smith ruled on. “There is also the possibility of not pursuing any claim.”

Smith, acknowledging the frustrating finality of his ruling, denied Ward’s temporary restraining order Oct. 8 that would have allowed him to play the last part of the season.

Smith wrote that the current record does not show that Ward has been barred from participation in high school athletics because of the conduct of any state actor but acknowledged that more evidence could change his claim.

Ward alleges that the school’s admissions director suggested he apply as a repeating freshmen, not a sophomore, for “academic reason ” when he transferred from Kalaheo in 2022, according to the 19-page complaint filed Sept. 24.

Ward’s father passed away in 2020 and a broken hip and long COVID-19 forced him to miss at least five months of school in 2021.

Donna A.O. Yoshimoto, attorney for HBA, told Smith’s court Monday that “HBA is living with ILH rules, HHSAA rules.”

“We’re just trying to be participants just like every other private school in the state of Hawaii. And those rules are the rules and we are … subject to them, ” said Yoshimoto, noting that HBA encouraged Ward to submit another exemption request for spring sports as soon as possible.

Portnoy said that any application for an exemption to play spring sports would be made after the “critical sport (water polo ) is over.”

“That’s a decision that he and his mother are going to have to make, ” said Portnoy.