2022-2023 Player Preview: Payton Muma

Oct 4, 2022 - 3:00 PM

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Without her playing a single minute, you probably became familiar with Payton Muma if you followed the Gonzaga Bulldogs women’s basketball squad. Muma and fellow redshirter Calli Stokes, were the enthusiastic leaders of the bench mob, helping bring a special celebration to each Gonzaga victory.

Now that the redshirt year is over, what can we expect from Muma? The answer very well might be not much more, at the moment. A 5’8 true point guard, the redshirt freshman’s path to playing time is blocked by the Truong twins, and it remains to be seen how the rotation is going to spell out after that.

Much of that is the life of college basketball, however. Muma had the history in high school to potentially warrant spelling some minutes at the point this season. She was the second-highest rated recruit out of the state of Colorado in 2021 after all.

However, last season, while Kayleigh Truong was sidelined with an injury, Lisa Fortier turned the point guard duties over to her twin sister Kaylynne Truong. The latter Truong, after a couple of rough outings, settled nicely into the role. Presumably, both Truong twins will be starting the game, but it is still easy to see Fortier sliding Kaylynne over to point to spell Kayleigh at times. And with the addition of Brynna Maxwell in the backcourt, the Zags’ guards have a lot of experience in the coming season.

All of that considering, we should see Muma at times this season. One of the benefits of being a Bulldog is you are almost guaranteed to see the court at some point in the season. Last season, Fortier consistently ran a 10-women deep squad, with both Maud Huijbens and Esther Little picking up sporadic time in waning minutes throughout the season. Most likely, that will be the case for Muma this season as well.