Officially, nine programs remain in the running to land five-star guard Isiah Harwell. Harwell trimmed his list to include just Alabama, Baylor, Cal, Gonzaga, Houston, Idaho State, Texas, UCLA and North Carolina last fall, but it’s never felt as though those nine programs stand on anything resembling equal footing.
Today, Rivals national analyst Rob Cassidy explores the in-demand guard’s impending decision with a deep dive into where things stand.
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THE EVER SO SLIGHT LEADER: Gonzaga
The Zags were seen as the slight front-runners to land Harwell even before he scheduled his Feb. 23 official visit to Spokane, and that line of thinking certainly isn’t fading away now that the trip is on the agenda.
Harwell, who grew up in Idaho before transferring to play high school hoops at Utah’s Wasatch Academy, has a longstanding relationship with the Gonzaga staff that stems back to when the program briefly recruited his older brother, who eventually landed elsewhere. Harwell canceled his original visit date, which was set for Feb. 3, but quickly rescheduled after doing so.
The 6-foot-5 guard seems to have some sense of urgency when it comes to getting on campus in Spokane, which feels like good news for the Bulldogs.
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THE SERIOUS THREAT: North Carolina
Harwell has called North Carolina a “dream school” and says he began rooting for the Tar Heels as a child in a contrarian effort to spite his older brothers, who supported Duke. Whatever the reason, his UNC fanhood formed a stranglehold, as the Tar Heels shot to the top of the five-star’s list as soon as they began to show interest.
Harwell has already been on campus in Chapel Hill for a multi-day unofficial visit and is expected to return for an official at yet-to-be-determined date. If such a trip takes place, it seems possible that North Carolina will pull even with the Bulldogs at the top of Harwell’s recruitment. There isn’t much to separate the two programs, so listing Gonzaga as the slight favorite is simply a product of the blue chip prospect’s upcoming official to Spokane.
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THE PERIPHERY: Houston, Alabama, Cal and Baylor
It seems relatively unlikely that Harwell will land anywhere other than Spokane or Chapel Hill, but there has been some early discussion about visits to Cal, Alabama, Baylor and Houston, which seem like “the best of the rest” in the race to land Harwell’s letter of intent.
Places such as UCLA may well get a visit down the road, but the Bruins seem pretty unlikely to actually land the five-star when push comes to shove later this year.
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