Gonzaga has just four returning players, but don’t expect to see the 2018-19 versions of Killian Tillie, Corey Kispert, Filip Petrusev and Joel Ayayi this season. All four are slated for larger roles on the court and in the locker room.

“We’re really counting on those two grad transfers,” Few said of the likely starting backcourt duo. And the Zags are counting on contributions of varying degrees from at least three or four freshmen who helped comprise the 13th-ranked recruiting class in the country, according to 247sports.

Ol’ Doc Frankenstein – movie Frankenstein, anyway – had it easy.

Stop us if you’ve read this before, like, one year ago practically to the date: Gonzaga’s outlook is bright, even with Killian Tillie battling an injury leading into the season.

They’ve already raised their game. Now Katie Campbell and Jessie Loera are raising their voices.

Did Gonzaga really lose three starters from last year?

The script is dog-eared, tattered and coffee-stained from two decades of re-use, as if plucked from the read-through table on the set of “Law & Order” or “Home Improvement.”

The first year of the Kyle Smith era at Washington State won’t be as telling as the second or third, but a program that averaged 11 wins per season under Ernie Kent and never won more than 13 should expect to be more competitive, and more capable on defense, than it has in the past.

Well, the NCAA still hasn’t gone nuclear on Arizona and USC for transgressions that landed their assistant coaches in front of a judge. One of its teams even reached the second weekend of March Madness last spring.