Ryan Nembhard breaks Gonzaga’s WCC Player of Week drought with record-setting performance

For the first time this year, and with only four regular-season games remaining, the West Coast Conference’s Player of the Week honor has been awarded to a Gonzaga player.

Point guard Ryan Nembhard was named WCC Player of the Week after setting more records while dishing out 23 total assists during home wins against San Francisco and Pepperdine.

In a 107-55 win over Pepperdine on Saturday, Nembhard broke former BYU star Kyle Collinsworth’s record for most assists in a single conference season. Nembhard beat the previous record of 136 in just his 14th WCC game, achieving the mark in four fewer games than Collinsworth, and had 11 total assists in just 22 minutes against Pepperdine.

Nembhard’s 11 assists represented one-third of the team’s total in a game that saw Gonzaga register 33 assists to break the program single-game record.

The senior from Ontario also became the 51st player in NCAA Division I history, and one of just two active players, to reach 800 career assists.

Nembhard, who broke his own school single-season assists record in Gonzaga’s last road game at Pacific, had a double-double of 18 points and 12 assists earlier in the week against San Francisco, leading the Zags to an 88-77 victory.

With 270 total assists this season, Nembhard, who’s averaging 10.0 per game, is on track to break Emmett Naar’s WCC single-season record of 284 by the end of the week. Nembhard also has an opportunity to become the 21st player in NCAA history with 300 assists in a single season.

Prior to Nembhard being selected on Monday, the WCC’s Player of the Week honor had been handed out to 14 players at seven of the conference’s 10 schools. San Francisco’s Malik Thomas leads all players with four weekly WCC honors this season.

Portland’s Austin Rapp was named the WCC’s Freshman of the Week on Monday after averaging 19.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 2.5 blocks in the team’s wins over Oregon State and LMU.