Is the new Pac-12 cursed when it comes to basketball? No fewer than three potential men’s basketball stars in the debut season of the new Pac-12 have either faced substantial injuries or left their team.
First, San Diego State lost transfer win Nick Anderson to a torn ACL and meniscus. Then Boise State lost its top transfer acquisition, Ty Rodgers, to an undisclosed lower-body injury that required surgery. And just this week, Gonzaga lost its projected starting point guard, Mario Saint-Supery, to Europe.
All three players would have been on the shortlist for a preseason All-Pac-12 team.
Anderson, a transfer from Rice, averaged 15.5 points last year and would have been one of the best 3-point shooters in the conference. San Diego State needed a high-level scorer to replace, and also improve upon, what Miles Byrd and Reese Dixon-Waters brought on the wing. Brian Dutcher got that when he signed Anderson, but lost it during an innocuous drill in a May workout.
Rodgers’ potential as a star was less certain, but there was an argument that he could be the top player in the preseason, if not the actual season. EvanMiya.com ranked him 142nd among all transfers this offseason, the third-highest transfer recruit in the Pac-12. He looked like a good candidate to join stars who went through the high-major-to-mid-major pipeline. Guys like MJ Collins, Ian Martinez, Jaedon LeDee, Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and Jaden Henley who went from being largely overlooked reserves at more prominent schools to stars in the Mountain West. Rodgers played two seasons at Illinois, earning a reputation as a hard-nosed wing and tough defender. But then he sat out each of the last two seasons, one due to injury and another as a redshirt.
That number might go up to three straight seasons this year. Though the wording in the reporting of Rodgers’ injury indicates it could be less serious than Anderson’s, as it was reported up front that he had an ACL and meniscus injury, which is pretty much automatically season-ending. Rodgers has undergone surgery, but the only official or unofficial word on the injury comes from Boise State, which said there is no timetable for his return following said surgery.
Saint-Supery didn’t put up flashy numbers in 2025-26. His averages of 8.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists came within the context of being only a part-time starter (17 starts in 35 appearances) as a freshman. The jump from year one to year two was expected to be both big and impactful. Saint-Supery was going to quarterback an offense where two of his main distribution targets were a pair of high-level pick-and-roll bigs, Braden Huff and Massamba Diop. It doesn’t take a basketball savant to see how Saint-Supery could easily have become one of the top point guards, not just in the Pac-12 but potentially in the nation.
So where does the Pac-12 go from here? Three stars are now unavailable for either most or all of this upcoming season.
The good news for the conference as a whole is that none of these players were at the absolute peak of preseason hype (though that’s not to say they couldn’t have climbed that ladder by March). The athletes in that category are, for now, fully healthy and include names like the aforementioned Huff, plus Mason Falslev, along with honorable mentions for Josiah Lake and Kyle Jorgensen.
The true consequence of these lost stars comes from the lost potential and depth. One of those three could have surpassed Huff, Falslev, Lake, or any others receiving hype right now. And even if they didn’t, the depth of the impacted team’s rotations and their overall ceiling are taking a hit. San Diego State and Boise State may now struggle to keep up with Gonzaga, Utah State and Colorado State. And while the Zags are still likely to be the best team by a decent margin, their potential in March is subdued, barring an overachieving replacement stepping into a suddenly bigger role.
Boise State doesn’t have any recourse to replace Rodgers other than in-house, as it has reached the roster cap of 15. San Diego State and Gonzaga do have open roster spots, though. And while viable options to fill the void left by players as capable as Anderson and Saint-Supery are difficult to find in July, the recent lawsuits by players seeking a fifth season in light of the new five-to-play-five rule could provide a serendipitous source of relief.
