Arizona Basketball: Five-star center Dawson Garcia latest to receive offer

Arizona Basketball made another offer for the class of 2020, this time to five-star center Dawson Garcia.

Another offer. Shortly after standout transfer from Kentucky Jemarl Baker announced he was committing to Arizona basketball, five-star center for the class of 2020 Dawn Garcia announced he received an offer to play at Arizona. In the span of 27 minutes, this all went down. Can’t make this stuff up.

Garcia joins another five-star commit, small forward Jalen Johnson, as one  of the possible commits for the class of 2020. Things continue at this rate, the Wildcats have a good chance of having another top recruiting class for 2020. There is still plenty of time and players out there to be recruited. Exciting stuff!

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Listed as a center at 6 foot 11 and 220 pounds, Garcia plays more like a guard, which is scary! According to 247 Sports he is ranked No.21 in the nation and No.2 in the state of Minnesota. Garcia is the second recruit that Arizona has gone after, the most recent being incoming four-star commit Zeke Nnaji.

He currently plays for Prior Lake High school and also for the AAU team D1 Minnesota. In his junior year for Prior Lake, Garcia averaged 26.0 points per game, 11.0 rebounds per game, shot 43.6% from three and 61.2% from the field. Those stats are guard like, but remember he is listed as a “center.”

Garcia is one of those gifted athletes that can’t be passed up. He has a lot of other offers from top schools, such as Baylor, Marquette, Texas and Minnesota who want him on their roster for 2020. Whoever is lucky enough to get him, hopefully it’s Arizona, will be getting someone who will have an immediate impact.

He’s a combination of a Lauri Markkanen and Deandre Ayton because of his ability to handle the ball, shoot the ball from outside, but also finish with authority down low. For his size Garcia moves his feet well and has good court awareness, but will need to work on his strength and conditioning.

Arizona basketball is no stranger to having left handed players, who can shoot. Damon Stoudamire and Salim Stoudamire, may have heard of them? As a lefty, Garcia’s shooting motion is beautiful to watch. His style of play for a big man is how the game of basketball is now played, especially at the NBA level. Centers shooting three pointers, that’s the norm.

Regardless of who leaves or stays after the 2019-20 season, Garcia playing time at Arizona would not be limited at all because of how versatile he can be. That’s a key factor that is taking into consideration when five and four-star players choose their school. There is a lot of competition right now for Garcia, deservingly so. At Zona Zealots, we look forward to what school he chooses. Bear Down, Arizona!

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