2014 Gonzaga Recruiting Big Board: 11 Days Until Perkins

Things are about to get very 'real' in terms of the 2014 recruiting class.  With the school year just around the corner, many prospects will be hoping to decide their college fate in the next few months.  We've already seen a number of commitments over the past few months, including Silas Melson to Gonzaga, but things are likely to really pick up in the month of September.  With that said, let's take a quick look and the prospects that may make up the 2014 class...

Point Guard

It has become abundantly clear that the staff wants a PG in 2014.  It has become even more clear that they want that prospect to be Josh Perkins.  Whatever your views are on his recruitment, one thing is very apparent: the staff has gone 'all in' with Perkins.  Mark Few has watched him more than any prospect I can think of in recent memory.  He traveled to all of his major July events and was also present throughout the spring sessions.  Josh is set to decide his college fate on August 24th, the day before his birthday.  There's a lot of good 'mojo' working in the Zags favor right now but we are trying to stay as calm as possible until decision day.

Shooting guards

Melson's commitment was a great start to the 2014 class.  Silas has loads of potential and should be a great asset to the Zags in the future.  It is also great to lock up one of the top prospects in the Northwest when he was being heavily courted by some of the top programs in the area.  It is not impossible that the Zags won't take a guy like Bryan Alberts or Trey Kell, even though Kell will be very hard to get.  Alberts is a bigger guard that could play alongside Melson and can even run some point.  The issue with Alberts is that he has been injured quite a bit recently and a number of schools have lost interest.

Wings

This is where things get interesting.  For the longest time, it did not seem like the Zags were heavily involved with Namon Wright.  To be totally honest, I felt he was a UCLA lock when Alford went there but reports agree that Alford hasn't shown as much interest as other schools have.  Wright is a great athlete and a tenacious defender that is working to refine his game.  What is interesting about this group is that Malik Pope and Wright could also both become members of the class because they are very different in terms of skill set.  Pope is a matchup nightmare as he will be able to draw bigger forwards out to the perimeter and take them on the dribble drive.  He is one of the most skilled players in high school right now, regardless of classification.

Forwards

The most recent 2014 news revolved around highly skilled big man Domantas Sabonis.  Like most Euro transplants, Sabonis is extremely versatile and is hard to place in one category.  Like Malik Pope, he has the ability to play outside the arch but he is also very skilled in the low post.  There were reports that Sabonis was planning to visit Spokane last weekend but we haven't been able to confirm if that took place.  Regardless, like many other Euros, Tommy Lloyd has put in a lot of legwork with Domantas and the Zags will be a big factor for him.  The other hot name in this category has been Reid Travis.  Gonzaga was Reid's first official visit but it sounds like he is planning on taking all five which will likely include Stanford, UCLA, Minnesota, and Michigan State.