Few Good Men adds former Eagle Jacob Wiley, ex-Cougar DaVonte Lacy
Few Good Men, the Gonzaga-centric entry in The Basketball Tournament, has added a few great players well known in the Inland Northwest and beyond.
FGM bolstered its roster with former Eastern Washington standout Jacob Wiley and ex-Washington State Cougar guard DaVonte Lacy. They join ex-Zags Matt Bouldin, Steven Gray, Sam Dower Jr., Drew Barham, Casey Calvary, Blake Stepp and Connor Griffin in the $2 million, winner-take-all summer tournament.
Few Good Men is juggling its roster to work around former Gonzaga standout Kevin Pangos’ late July wedding, roughly the same time frame as TBT’s round-of-16 games. Griffin and Barham are expected to play in the opening weekend, but won’t be available for the second round because they’re in Pangos’ wedding.
“Kevin was a four-year Zag and four-year starter and his reach of friends is huge,” Few Good Men third-year general manager Jordan Piscopo said. “It’s been a fun challenge. Essentially we’ve had some guys that said if they can’t play the second weekend, it’s what’s the point of playing the first weekend.”
Wiley is expected to join Few Good Men if they advance to the second round. The 2017 Big Sky Conference MVP played in five games this season with NBA Brooklyn on a two-way contract. The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 6.6 minutes in five appearances.
Wiley played 16 games for Brooklyn’s G-League team in Long Island, averaging 7.6 points and 3.6 rebounds. He was released in January and has seen limited time with Ludwigsburg, a pro team in Germany’s first division.
Lacy was a four-year starter at WSU. He averaged 19.4 points as a junior. He contributed 16.9 points as a senior in 2015 and was first-team All-Pac-12. The Tacoma native is the Cougars’ all-time leader with 249 3-pointers.
Lacy put up 18.5 points, 5.2 assists and 2.8 rebounds this season for German pro team Ehingen. He also has pro experience in Austria in 2015-16.
Former Zag Rem Bakamus helped Piscopo, Stepp and ex-Gonzaga great Dan Dickau assemble the roster.
“Rem knew DaVonte pretty well through the basketball community and same thing with Jacob,” Piscopo said. “We started with Zags and went from there. DaVonté was an awesome early get. Jacob is like a Swiss Army knife, he can guard ‘2’ through ‘5,’ which is huge in this (tournament).”
A partnership between TBT and Hoopfest is bringing a four-team West Region pod – Few Good Men, Team Utah (Utes alumni), Gael Force (Saint Mary’s alumni) and Air Force Bomb Squad – to Lewis and Clark High School on June 29-30 during Hoopfest weekend. Pairings haven’t been announced.
“We have good balance,” Piscopo said. “We don’t have guys that necessarily play just one position. We have four ballhanders and scorers. We have shooters across the board and can really spread the floor out.”
The roster is a work in progress and could be adjusted in the coming weeks and certainly if FGM advances, Piscopo said. The Hoopfest pod is the earliest of TBT openers, nearly a month before the Super 16 in Atlanta.
TBT teams are allowed a maximum of 15 players. It costs $1,000 to add a player after June 1, $2,000 heading into the second week and $3,000 for the semifinals.
Former Gonzaga guard Jeremy Pargo, who helped Few Good Men reach the Super 16 the last two years, has joined three-time defending champion Overseas Elite. FGM hoped Pargo would return, but he’s living in Miami and has connections to Overseas Elite, which is playing in the South Region.
Austin Daye, a lottery pick after leaving Gonzaga following his sophomore season, is playing with Team Challenge ALS for the second straight year.