If in the next few years the University of Washington men’s basketball program finds its way back to winning Pac-10 tournament championships, the lofty realm of No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament and trips to the Sweet 16 and beyond, the Huskies’ success will likely be rooted in the city of Tacoma.
That’s because Tacoma’s Isaiah Thomas and Abdul Gaddy will probably have played major roles in returning UW to the elite status it enjoyed from 2004-2006. Thomas, a freshman, has already pitched in, without even playing in a game.
The former Curtis High star was one of the reasons Gaddy, a senior at Bellarmine Prep, orally committed to Washington on Tuesday evening.
“He was a real big part of it,” said Gaddy, who is regarded as one of the top high school point guards in the nation. “He worked out with me, helped me with a lot of parts of my game. We became real close; like family.”
Gaddy’s commitment to the Huskies can become official on Nov. 12, the first day of the early signing period. He said he has not yet set a date for his official visit, but plans to take one.
Gaddy said Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar and assistant Cameron Dollar have been recruiting longer than any other coaches and he felt a connection with them.
“Coach Romar, coach Cameron Dollar, are good, great coaches,” he said. “I feel like I had the best relationship with those coaches out of all the coaches, even the Arizona coaches.”
Gaddy, 6-foot-3, is open about his goal of reaching the NBA. He said he plans to be at Washington for two seasons and declare for the draft when he will be eligible under the NBA’s new age requirements – Gaddy turns 17 in January.
“I’m looking at two years,” he said, “but I’ll be there for however long I need to be there...if it takes me four years, it takes me four years.”
He also said he planned to earn his degree, even if it required taking courses in the summer during the NBA’s offseason.
“But no matter what I’m going to come back and get my degree,” Gaddy said. “I promised my mom I would always do that.”
Gaddy originally gave a verbal commitment in August 2007 to attend Arizona, but re-opened the recruiting process in May after mass turnover in the Wildcats’ coaching staff. He reaffirmed his commitment to Arizona in September when longtime head coach Lute Olson assured Gaddy that he would remain with the program.
Then Olson unexpectedly retired late last week, the result of suffering a stroke in the last year.
“It was a real shock to me, all the Arizona stuff,” Gaddy said. “I kind of knew, in the back of my mind, that there was the possibility that (Olson) could leave. But he was telling me that he was going to be there. So then when all that stuff happened, I didn’t know what to do. There was no stability there. I just felt that it was a sign to stay home and just go to the league from here. What’s better than going to the league from home?”
Gaddy said that if former Arizona assistant coaches Josh Pastner and Miles Simon were still on staff, he likely would have stayed with the Wildcats.
“I think I would have kept my decision if Josh and Miles and all those guys were still there,” he said.
“Once all that started happening, the firing of coaches, that’s when I really knew that there was no stability there. There were too many questions down there.”
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