Guy Landry Commits Following Visit to Spokane: Catching Up With the Newest Zag

While it gets harder and harder for their to be surprises in recruiting, the Gonzaga coaching staff managed to pull off one of the quickest recruiting coups in recent memory, as the Zags landed a commitment from Guy Landry of Midland CC. Landry, who just started receiving interest from the coaching staff a couple of weeks ago, provides an instant replacement for Mangisto Arop, as he is an elite athlete and a willing defender on the perimeter.

After finishing up his visit to Spokane on Saturday, Landry knew where he wanted to continue this basketball career. Despite a visit to Wichita St. last weekend, the elite athlete discovered that Gonzaga was the best fit for the next stage in his career.

"Pretty much," Landry said of committing. "They wanted me to take the weekend to think about it and make sure. I told them this is where I want to be."

There were numerous factors that helped Landry find his comfort zone at Gonzaga. However, the one aspect that kept coming up was the opportunity to play against the best competition and compete for a National Championship.

"First of all, it's (Gonzaga) is one of the best programs in the country," explained the Midland CC star. "I went to high school in LA so I have ties on the West Coast. The team has so many foreign players, so I know I will be comfortable. They (Gonzaga) obviously have a great coach. He is one of the best coaches in the country and they play a big-time schedule. I just thought it would be a good fit for me."

As we explained earlier, the process from the beginning of his recruitment, to the time he committed was only a couple of weeks. In a world where coaches typically invest months, if not years, of interest and time, it is certainly interesting to see how quickly this process occurred.

"Not long ago," said Landry of when the Zags started recruiting him. "When they found out that Manny was going to ask for his release, which was only two weeks ago, they started recruiting me. Tommy (Lloyd) took a trip down here to Midland and he told me straight up that they didn't recruit me before because they didn't have any scholarships. So, when they knew Manny was leaving, which opened up the last scholarship, I was interested and did my homework. I just thought it was the best fit for me."

With perimeter defense and athleticism being such an issue for recent Gonzaga teams, the interest in a player like Landry should come as no surprise. As he explained, Landry is willing to do anything to help his team win.

"I'm an all-around player. I can do so much on the court," Landry explained. "I rebound well and I play defense. I can score, I can pass and I'm a good teammate. Anything that I have to do on the court for my team to win, I will be willing to do that."

Now that he is committed, Landry will return to Spokane this summer to enroll in classes and play with the team. After getting to play with some of the guys on his visit, Landry is sure that he will be able to adjust and be a good fit in this program.

"The guys were unselfish when we were playing together," the newest Zag said. "The guys play really hard. My coach at Midland did a great job of preparing us so that it won't be so hard to transition when we get to Division I."