Washington Target Jabari Bird Will Announce Commitment Wednesday

Following an official visit to California, five-star recruit Jabari Bird, ranked 20th in the class of 2013, has announced that he has canceled his remaining official visits and will give his commitment on Wednesday at Salesian High School.

Bird is a recruit that has been actively pursued by Romar and his staff, with many considering Washington to be one of the likeliest destinations for the 6’5″ small forward from Richmond, California. He had even scheduled an official visit at the University of Washington on September 29th. Other schools that had been expecting Bird to take an official visit are Arizona, Colorado, and Oregon.

The nature of such a drastic change of direction after a visit to Cal almost certainly means he will commit to the Bears tomorrow. Even assuming his visit was so terrible that he feels the need to immediately count out Cal, it still doesn’t explain why he would cancel his other official visits. I don’t see any other logical reason for this announcement other than a commitment to Cal.

If that is true, it will be quite a blow to the recruiting efforts of the Huskies. Jabari Bird is close friends and AAU teammates with Aaron Gordon, a 6’8″ power forward who is considered by Rivals to be the fifth best player in the country, and it has long been hypothesized that the two could come as a package deal. The fact that both players have spoken so highly of UW is one of the reasons why the Huskies have been considered a bit of a front runner in the recruiting battle. Up until today of course.

So if Bird goes off to Cal, it may very well cost Coach Romar the services of Gordon as well. Nothing is final, but there isn’t a way to spin this news possitively for the University of Washington basketball program.