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2021 five-star big man Paolo Banchero will take two visits to Gonzaga, officially on Jan. 18-19, and unofficially on Sept. 7-8. Gonzaga is scheduled to play BYU the weekend Banchero will be in Spokane.
Significant info: Banchero just told me that he will also take an unofficial visit to Gonzaga on September 7-8, so that visit plus the scheduled official visit he has. https://t.co/uJ4GQKq4Sd
— Jake (@jakeweingarten) August 20, 2019
Banchero is a 6’9 power forward from O’Dea High School in Seattle, Washington, and is considered one of the top prospects in the country. 247 Sports rates him as the top Washington prospect, the top power forward prospect in the nation, and the fourth-best player overall.
He averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds last season and helped lead O’Dea to a 3A state championship. He briefly flirted with the idea of reclassifying to the class of 2020, but ultimately decided to stay in his natural class.
The 247 Sports Crystal Ball predictor has all signs pointing towards UW at the moment, but many of those predictions were made a year ago. Banchero has been a hot name in the state of Washington for quite some time now, gathering interest from teams such as Kentucky when he was in just 9th grade.
It is hard to pin what the Zags roster will look like for the 2021-22 season. Filip Petrusev might be a senior. Anton Watson, Drew Timme, Oumar Ballo, and Pavel Zakharov might be juniors. Most likely, some combination of those players will have departed early, if the recruiting hype is to be believed. In short, there will be plenty of room to unleash Banchero, probably for one year before he heads to the NBA.
The Zags Class of 2021 consists solely of 6’9 Kaden Perry from Battle Ground, Washington.