During the Wayne State exhibition game, it was obvious that Mark Few and the staff recruited an excellent 2008 class. Andy Poling, Grant Gibbs, and Demetri Goodson were all outstanding in their debuts for the Bulldogs.
The 2009 recruiting class appears to be in a similar mold and two very important pieces of that class are expected to be signing during the early period which begins on November 12th. Sam Dower (top right), a forward from Osseo, Minnesota, verbally committed to Gonzaga on September 6th during his visit to Spokane. The 6'9'' power forward chose the Zags over Minnesota, Cal, and Marquette among others.
Mangisto Arop (top left) was the first commit of Gonzaga's 2009 class after the defection of Brock Osweiler. Arop gave his verbal to Gonzaga in May and has since blown up and could become a star for the Bulldogs. He is now a four-star recruit as ranked by Rivals.com and has looked great when he visited Spokane in September. Arop was here for Dower's visit and they hit it off and hopefully can build on their chemistry even before enrolling at Gonzaga.
Gonzaga still has scholarships to work with as they will definitely be losing four seniors in Jeremy Pargo, Micah Downs, Ira Brown, and Josh Heytvelt. There are also questions about the future of Austin Daye and whether or not he will seek a future in the NBA after this season.
While the Bol Kong VISA situation is looking better, you just never know how these type of things are going to turn out. I would say that at this point, the Kong situation appears to be heading in the right direction but that is just a gut feeling. Guys like Daequon Montreal and Guy-Marc Michel have entered the picture and seem to be solid junior college players. There is also hope for a transfer as Mark Few has had luck in the past getting players that are looking for new surroundings, Ala Micah Downs.
The future remains to be seen but with the addition of Arop and Dower in the early signing period, Gonzaga is on the right track to continue their tradition of excellence in college basketball.
Posts
4 comments:
I'm still impressed with Few and Co for landing Arop. I'd never heard a word about him and then, BAM, suddenly he verbals to GU and explodes on the scene. Great great get. Dower should be very solid, too. Now lets just hope Kong's visa clears and the coaches pull off another major signing coup.
Great job with the site guys. I also hope we get Kong.
BTW, why is there no men's BBall in the schedule?
Ask and you shall receive!
Great, great job with the site.
Post a Comment