Gift is an admirable person from all accounts, but..
He was not very good last season.
He's not good enough to be a big part of the game plan for this season.
Why would we want him playing next season?
It does make sense for him, I don't deny the value of an extra year of grad school, that's good stuff for the player. But I don't see how this helps the basketball team. Even if Sanchez leaves, we still have Obekpa as the starting Center and plenty of power forwards on the roster. Go use his scholarship to recruit a backup for Obekpa who will also be here for 4 years. I don't even deny that next year an average recruit is probably worse than Gift would be as a supersenior, but 1) it'll be in a backup roll, and 2) that player will be a sophomore the year after, and so on.
We're prolonging the inevitable here.
The staff didn't even start Gift when we had no other center on the roster. They don't think he's integral this year. Why do we keep going back to the well?