He is 6-foot-9, a redshirt senior originally from Colorado. She is 6-foot-3, a redshirt freshman from New Zealand. If the two Gonzaga basketball stars don’t seem to have much in common, they are alike in one important way.

Graham Ike and Lauren Whittaker — named this week as the West Coast Conference Players of the Year — each arrived on campus with tough acts to follow at a program where expectations reside in the clouds.

Ike was playing his second season at Wyoming in 2022-23 when Drew Timme, Gonzaga’s career scoring leader, was finishing out his college career as a two-time conference Player of the Year and consensus All-American. 

Whittaker was redshirting in Spokane a year ago, rehabbing an ankle injury, as Yvonne Ejim was closing a prolific Zags career that earned her two Player of the Year honors. She was a Canadian Olympian and a WNBA draft pick.

Timme and Ejim combined to provide the Zags with 4,692 points and 2,036 rebounds and left impossibly giant shoes to fill. And yet, in their own ways, Ike and Whittaker delivered.

Ike (pronounced Ee-kay, for the uninitiated) was a force from the start after transferring to Gonzaga, earning first-team All-West Coast Conference each of his three seasons. A strong and agile left-hander, he is a load to stop in the paint and has gradually developed a perimeter game.

Even after Saint Mary’s toppled Gonzaga in the regular-season finale last Saturday to earn a share of the league title with the Zags, the Gaels acknowledged the immense challenge that Ike presents. 

Gaels center Harry Wessels called him “one of the toughest covers in the country.” Andrew McKeever, his tag-team partner in the paint, took it a step further. “He is the game plan,” McKeever said of the Gaels’ defensive focus.

He has scored more points vs. Saint Mary’s — 147 in eight meetings — than against any other opponent. Head coach Randy Bennett knows the Gaels potentially could face him once more next Tuesday in the title game of the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Basketball Championship at Las Vegas. “He’s a heck of a player,” Bennett said. “I mean, a heck of a player.”

For Ike, who has scored 20 points or more 44 times with the Zags, the load has been heavier since co-star Braden Huff went down due to a knee injury on Jan. 8. In the 11 games Ike has played since, he has hiked his production to 24.1 points per game on 61-percent shooting for a team without a consistent No. 2 scoring option.

His season numbers are equally impressive: 19.7 points on 56.4-percent accuracy — both tops in the conference — and 8.3 rebounds, which checks in at No. 2. For his career, Ike’s 2,492 points lead all active Division I players.

While freshmen, including Darryn Peterson of Kansas, AJ Dybantsa of BYU and Cameron Boozer of Duke, all are lauded as potential NBA lottery picks, Ike doesn’t get the respect Gonzaga head coach Mark Few feels he deserves.

“I think it's time he starts seeing his name pop up on first team All-American or second team All-American,” he told The Spokesman-Review. “I know we're all obsessed and infatuated with these freshmen, but he's literally been delivering night in and night out at the highest level.”

Just as Timme and Ike are different players, Whittaker never had designs on becoming the next Yvonne Ejim. But as freshmen, there really is no comparison — Whittaker’s success arc has started at a much higher place.

She was selected the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Week 13 times. There were just four weeks when did she not land the honor. Needless to say, that made her an obvious and overwhelming choice as Freshman of the Year.

Playing on a team where four of the top six scorers are freshmen or sophomores, Whittaker averages 19.3 points, 10.2 rebounds and shoots 55.8 percent from the field — all best in the conference. She also leads all freshmen nationally with 17 double-doubles. Whittaker scored 37 points against Oregon State and had 30 against Portland.

Ejim became one of Gonzaga’s all-time greats, but as a freshman on a veteran team she wasn’t asked to shoulder the load that Whittaker has carried.

“She’s trying to make the impact Vonny made without being Yvonne because she’s Lauren,” Gonzaga head coach Lisa Fortier said. “There’s a lot of people who make a lot of comparisons. It’s funny because they’re not comparable. Vonny’s freshman year she didn’t even play. When you think of it like that, it’s pretty impressive what Lauren’s doing.”

Certainly their paths have been different. Ejim averaged just 6.5 minutes per game her rookie season with the Zags and wasn’t a starter until her junior season. Strictly a low-post player early in her career, Ejim didn’t make her first 3-point basket until her third season. Whittaker has buried 30 of them this season, connecting on nearly 37 percent from deep.

These Zags needed immediate production from Whittaker, and she met the moment. She ranks second among freshmen nationally in points, points per game, rebounds, defensive rebounds per game and field goals made. 

Whittaker is the first player since Sonya Carter of U.S. International in 1985-86 — the West Coast Conference’s debut season for women’s hoops — to sweep the Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year awards. She recently became the only freshman named to the list of 10 semifinalists for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats.

“She’s really getting better every day. You can see her evolution in real speed,” Fortier said. “Pretty impressive player.”