One-time Homesick Hickman Talks to Huskies, Picks Gonzaga
Nolan Hickman, the Seattle-area point guard who left Kentucky because he was homesick, needed only to cross over the state of Washington borders to find college basketball comfort.
This weekend, the 6-foot-2 point guard from Kent, Washington, disclosed on social media that he will play for Gonzaga after apparently holding conversations with Mark Few's program in Spokane, plus Arizona State, Auburn, Kansas, UCLA and Washington, according to news accounts.
Jim Meehan's story in the Spokane Spokesman-Review can be accessed here.
While the Huskies couldn't land Hickman, they've been very aggressive in restocking two-thirds of their roster of scholarship athletes, largely with former Northwest players who had gone elsewhere.
The UW appears to have one or two scholarships left to fill as Mike Hopkins tries to completely remake his 5-21 team.
Hickman who played his schoolboy basketball for Eastside Catholic High School in Sammamish, Washington, and for the Wasatch Academy in Utah, backed out of Kentucky after a pair of assistant coaches there who were deeply involved in his recruitment took other jobs.
He'll join a Zags program coming off an NCAA championship game appearance and likely a significant roster turnover, but has recruiting one of the nation's top classes once more.
Gonzaga will add Hickman, the nation's 22nd recruit in ESPN rankings, to 7-foot center Chet Holmgren, 247Sports' No. 1-ranked player from Minnesota, plus No. 18 Hunter Sallis, a 6-foot-4 guard from Nebraska, and No. 53 Kaden Perry, another Northwest player and a 6-foot-9 forward from Battle Ground, Washington.
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