Romar Thrilled With Washington's Recruiting Class

After a day of delay, Washington was able to announce its commitments for the 2009 men's basketball season.

The four players who signed national letters of intent, Abdul Gaddy, Charles Garcia, Clarence Trent, and C.J. Wilcox, are a second consecutive recruiting coup for coach Lorenzo Romar and his staff. The three initial recruits, Garcia, Trent and Wilcox, were rated the 17th best group in the country by Rivals.com. The addition of Gaddy, after he twice decommitted from Arizona, moved the class into the top 10 rankings of many recruiting services.

Romar said he expects all four to be academically eligible, and these would be the only new faces for next season barring an unexpected defection from this year's roster.

"In college basketball you never know," Romar said. "Players can be disgruntled because they didn't play enough ... you never know what's going to happen in the spring. Unless something happens in the spring this will be it."

Here's a look at the new guys:

ABDUL GADDY
School: Bellarmine Prep
Height: 6-3
Weight: 170
Position: guard
Romar's take: "Abdul is one of the best point guards to come around in a long, long time. He's one of those point guards that's intelligent, shoots the basketball well, passes the basketball well, knows when to take over, when not to take over, understands tempo. He's a leader, he's got good size for a point guard at 6-feet-3 inches tall. He's got the entire package."

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CLARENCE TRENT
School: Findlay Prep (Henderson, NV)
Height: 6-7
Weight: 230
Position: Power forward
Romar's take: "Extremely strong and athletic. Very powerful basketball player, another guy that can guard multiple position guys. He's fun to watch. He's so strong. He's always waiting with several highlights in his back pocket, he's that type of player. He's a hard worker."

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C.J. WILCOX
School: Pleasant Grove High School (Utah)
Height: 6-5
Weight: 180
Position: Shooting guard
Romar's take: "When coach Shaw saw C.J. play the first time, he noticed he can really shoot it. He thought he had to watch him again, (and) it was the same thing. So, he asked me to go see him and it was almost laughable how well he shoots the basketball. He's got good size. He's not limited to just a shooter, he can play the game. He's a very, very good athlete."

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Charles Garcia
School: Riverside (Calif.) C.C.
Height: 6-9
Weight: 220
Position: Forward
Romar's take: "Extremely versatile. Has cat-like quickness. The type of basketball player with size that can probably guard four or five different positions. He's the third junior college player we've taken since we've been here. With Jon Brockman and Artem Wallace leaving, (Garcia's) another player that can come in and have a potential to help us right away."

Todd Dybas is the sports editor of Seattlesportsonline.com. He can be reached via e-mail at tdybas@seattlesportsonline.com