It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for class of 2023 5-star Mookie Cook, but the six-foot-seven small forward out of Arizona reaffirmed his commitment to the Oregon Ducks on Friday afternoon.
Cook, the No. 4 ranked player in the class of 2023 per 247Sports, initially committed to Dana Altman’s program on March 31, but almost exactly two months later he re-opened his recruitment.
This was eye-opening for Gonzaga, as they were one of Cook’s three finalists alongside Oregon and Kentucky.
However, Oregon was able to bring him back into the mix after securing a commitment from power forward KJ Evans on August 2. Evans was projected by many to end up in Arizona with Tommy Lloyd, but once he revealed he was headed to Oregon it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Cook would end up back in the green and yellow as the two had often discussed playing together in Eugene.
Cook and Evans, along with Jackson Shelstad, give Oregon one of the best recruiting classes in the 2023 cycle, while Gonzaga misses out on a high profile target to add to a class that currently only features combo guard Dusty Stromer.
Andy hosts the Locked on Zags and Locked on College Basketball podcasts, and serves Locked On in a marketing/digital content creator role as well. He lives just outside Portland with his wife Jenna and dog, Tillie.