Busy day/night on GU beat
I put together a short feature earlier on Gonzaga freshman center Ryan Edwards, who is making the adjustment from high school to NCAA basketball.
You can my article, which will run in Tuesday's S-R, here.
I spent most of the evening gathering information on 2014 guard Bryan Alberts, who committed to the Bulldogs today. I spoke with Bryan and his father Rob for a few minutes. My article will run in Tuesday's S-R, but you can read an unedited version below.
A few tidbits on Alberts: He said he's a 3.4-3.5 student. He received widespread recruiting interest, including Boston College, Wisconsin (which was calling Rob on the other line during our conversation!), Oregon State, Creighton and Arizona State, but his finalists were Gonzaga and Stanford.
Alberts is anxious for the beginning of his senior season at Village Christian, a private school in the San Fernando Valley.
"I’m always still hungry to play," he said. "I’m very still hungry to improve myself."
By Jim Meehan
Staff writer
Bryan Alberts, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound guard at Village Christian High in Southern California, has orally committed to the Gonzaga men’s basketball program.
Alberts joins guards Josh Perkins and Silas Melson in Gonzaga’s 2014 recruiting class. Alberts said he chose Gonzaga over Stanford. He visited both schools as well as Tulane. He said he also took unofficial visits to at least 12 schools.
“I got to see a lot of colleges,” Alberts said Monday night in a phone interview from his family’s home in Sun Valley in Los Angeles County. “Gonzaga has a great program, great campus, phenomenal coaching and it was also the players there. All of that combined just made it the perfect situation for me.”
Alberts is rated as a three-star recruit and the 50th best point guard in the 2014 class by ESPN.com.
Alberts helped Village Christian to the 2012 California Interscholastic Federation Division 5 state championship. He scored 17 points in a 62-51 win in the title game and hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 45 seconds left in a 58-57 victory in the regional final. Village Christian advanced to the quarterfinals last season.
Alberts, playing predominately at point guard, averaged 17.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.2 steals in 65 games in his sophomore and junior seasons, according to maxpreps.com. He’ll probably play shooting guard or wing for the Bulldogs.
“I think I can handle the ball a little better than most 6-5 players and I think I have a little better shot, too. I really like finding other players, getting them opportunities and trying to create a good environment by being a team leader,” Alberts said. “I can play the ‘1’, ‘2’ or ‘3’.”
