Anton Michael Watson (born October 6, 2000) is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Gonzaga Bulldogs The Gonzaga Bulldogs () (also known unofficially as the Zags) are the intercollegiate athletic teams representing Gonzaga University, located in Spokane, Washington, United States. Gonzaga competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association ...

High school career

Watson played varsity basketball for four years at

Gonzaga Preparatory School Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, Washington, is a private, Catholic high school in the Inland Northwest. As a Jesuit institution, "G-Prep" has been recognized for its college preparation education and community service. History Gonzaga Hig ...

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

. In his sophomore season, he averaged 19 points per game and was named

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

(MVP) of the Greater Spokane League. Watson led his team to a league championship and a third-place finish at the Washington Class 4A state tournament. As a junior, he averaged 23 points, 11 rebounds and five assists per game and won the Class 4A state title while earning tournament MVP honors. Watson was selected to the ''USA Today'' All-USA Washington first team. In his senior season, he averaged 21.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, helped Gonzaga Prep win a second consecutive 4A state championship. He was the unanimous MVP of the state tournament and recognized as

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

4A Player of the Year and Washington Mr. Basketball. On June 21, 2017, before his junior season, Watson committed to play

for Gonzaga. He had also been in contact with

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

. Watson was considered a four-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * '' Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (E ...

and the second-best player in the 2019 class from Washington.

College career

On November 5, 2019, Watson debuted for Gonzaga, recording seven points, five rebounds and four assists in a win over Alabama State. He had 15 points in a win over

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

on November 12. Watson started four games with

Killian Tillie Killian Wiard Tillie (born 5 March 1998) is a French professional basketball player who is currently a free agent. He played college basketball for the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Listed at and , he plays the power forward and center positions. Tillie joi ...

recovering from knee surgery. On January 16, 2020, it was announced that Watson would undergo shoulder surgery and miss the remainder of the season. He averaged 4.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in 15 games.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Gonzaga , 15 , , 5 , , 14.7 , , .538 , , .111 , , .571 , , 3.1 , , 1.5 , , 1.2 , , .5 , , 4.9 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Gonzaga , 32 , , 17 , , 18.9 , , .631 , , .150 , , .650 , , 3.3 , , 1.2 , , 1.2 , , .6 , , 6.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", Gonzaga , 32 , , 0 , , 18.1 , , .538 , , .227 , , .698 , , 4.7 , , 1.9 , , 1.3 , , .3 , , 7.3 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Gonzaga , 37 , , 37 , , 29.1 , , .608 , , .333 , , .548 , , 6.2 , , 2.4 , , 1.8 , , .7 , , 11.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;", Gonzaga , 35 , , 35 , , 31.3 , , .578 , , .412 , , .653 , , 7.1 , , 2.6 , , 1.5 , , .7 , , 14.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 151 , , 94 , , 23.7 , , .586 , , .307 , , .627 , , 5.2 , , 2.0 , , 1.4 , , .6 , , 9.6

Personal life

Watson's father, Deon Sr., played college basketball at

(

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

– 94), holds the Vandal record for career rebounds (877), and played professionally in Europe and South America. Older brother Deon Jr. played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at their father's alma mater (

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

– 16) as a

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

and wide receiver, and sister Haile played

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanfor ...

(2015) and

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

(2016–18).

References

External links

Gonzaga Bulldogs bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Anton Living people 2000 births Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball players Gonzaga Preparatory School alumni People from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Basketball players from Idaho Basketball players from Spokane, Washington Small forwards