Reports: Domantas Sabonis inks with Gonzaga

Mar 21, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few in the second half of a men

After a long wait for official confirmation, fans of the Gonzaga Bulldogs received word that European power forward and son of an NBA legend – Arvydas Sabonis –  Domantas Sabonis signed with Gonzaga this morning. Jim Meehan from the Spokesman-Review sent out this tweet this morning to prove it:

The Sabonis-to-GU saga has been an exciting one to track. And by exciting, I mean confusing and frustrating. But nonetheless, the WCC is adding an exciting and talented player that will bolster the conference’s quality of basketball.

The rumors of Sabonis potentially coming to Gonzaga started swirling around in the summer, when Sabonis reportedly visited campus. Whether he actually did or not is up in the air, but based on the final outcome, I suspect he did.

After no significant news on Sabonis came out for a while, Greg Crawford, a sports writer in the Portland area, released this bit of info:

Then it was reported that Sabonis will decide what he plans to do in the future on March 15^th. Obviously, he later ended up taking longer than expected.

This is when things really started to get interesting. A foreign news outlet called “encestando.es” then began reporting that if Sabonis were to come to the U.S. for college, he would choose Gonzaga.

La Opinion De Malaga later reported that the big man was mulling over his options, and staying in the professional ranks over in Spain was a legitimate possibility.

However, in the next week or so, the prospect of him staying overseas to play professionally diminished with this report from Dailybasketball.it

Sabonis’ father then confirmed that Sabonis would “likely” come to Gonzaga.

It was finally made official on this date, and recruiting pundits gave their input on the signing afterwards:

On 247 sports, Sabonis is a five star recruit and the fifth ranked power forward in the class of 2014. International recruits usually are not scouted as much, which prevents them to be accurately ranked. Sabonis is an exception to this apparently.

Rivals also has Sabonis ranked, but as a four-star recruit.

All-in-all, this is an enormous pick-up for the Bulldogs. If Sabonis is all he is made out to be, expect Sabonis to play big minutes – likely off the bench – for Gonzaga this season.

With that being said, Luke Meilke or Ryan Edwards could redshirt this season as sophomores. It was rumored that Mielke was supposed to sit out this past season, but injury issues forced Mielke to play just in case.

For a better review of Sabonis’ past basketball performances, read our previous write-up on Sabonis coming to Gonzaga.