News updates are sent daily. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Top UA recruit bolts for Washington
Digg|
Save|
License|
Print|
E-mail|
SEATTLE - The fallout from Arizona coach Lute Olson abruptly retiring last month keeps spreading. And, man, are the Washington Huskies glad it reached them.
Washington made it official on Friday that top national recruit Abdul Gaddy backed out of his commitment to Arizona and signed a national letter of intent to play for the Pac-10 rival Huskies next season.
“One of the best point guards to come around in a long, long time,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said of his unexpected recruiting coup.
What didn’t become possible until three weeks ago suddenly puts the Huskies back on the national stage.
“He’s got the entire package,” Romar said. “Just a guy you don’t get every day of the week.”
Romar called Gaddy perhaps the most nationally coveted recruit he has signed since he arrived at Washington in 2002.
“He’s right up there with Jon Brockman and Spencer Hawes,” Romar said of two Huskies who declined offers from Duke and North Carolina, respectively, in recent years.
Gaddy, a 6-foot-3, all-state player from Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, was rated by most scouting services as the second-best point guard in the country. Washington had been recruiting him since was in the ninth grade.
But for the last two years, Romar and everyone else thought Gaddy was going to Arizona.
Gaddy twice reneged on verbal commitments to the Wildcats in the last couple years, first when Olson cited health issues as the reason he was taking a leave of absence before last season. Gaddy reaffirmed he was going to Tucson when Olson returned from his leave of absence last spring.
Yet Romar kept tabs on Gaddy while watching him in summer games with Bellarmine Prep’s traveling team, while the Huskies actively recruited Avery Bradley, Gaddy’s teammate who ultimately signed with Texas.
And when Arizona’s icon announced last month he was retiring after 25 seasons there, the phone lines from Seattle to Tacoma sizzled while Gaddy considered Washington and UCLA for his Plan B.
The Huskies had an inside track: Gaddy has been friends since fifth-grade with fellow Tacoma native Isaiah Thomas, who will be starting at guard for Washington in tonight’s season opener at Portland.
“Well, Isaiah just kind of has that way about him,” Romar said with a sly smile when asked how much Thomas influenced Gaddy.
“They don’t have phone books anymore, but his phone must have 7,000 numbers on it. He talks to everybody.”
Please add your comments, but follow these guidelines to keep this a safe, credible place for discussing the news: