Coming into this summer Wenyen Gabriel was a four-star recruit who was considered a good prospect in the 2016 recruiting class but not a great one. Many scouts and college basketball people have said after this summer though that he is the fastest riser in the class and he has really raised his stock big time. Gabriel has now reportedly cut his list of schools down to five and scheduled three of his five official visits, according to Adam Finkelstein of ESPN.
Gabriel's final five schools are Duke, Kentucky, Maryland, UConn and Providence. He has reportedly scheduled visits to Maryland, Kentucky and Duke but has yet to schedule visits to Providence and UConn.
Rankings on Gabriel differ a ton because some outlets re-rank more often than others but he is the 83rd overall prospect and 20th best power forward in the 2016 class according to ESPN. As of right now Duke appears to be the heavy favorite to land Gabriel, according to 247 Sports, who has him currently ranked as the 23rd best overall prospect in the 2016 class and number eight power forward, while The only other school that they gave a shot to was Boston College who Gabriel didn't even list in his top five.
These predictions don't make Duke a lock to land Gabriel but he would be their second big time commitment for 2016. They already received a commitment from five-star small forward Jayson Tatum and are the favorites for number one overall player Harry Giles who is a center so Gabriel would fit in with them nicely.
Gabriel is 6 foot-9, 185 lbs. and he is from Manchester New Hampshire which would seem to make Providence a realistic destination given its proximity to his hometown. Gabriel has tremendous length and a very good motor while his offensive skills have been developing swiftly. He has the range to shoot from anywhere inside the arc and his interior scoring is quickly becoming a strength.
The knock on Gabriel is that he needs to put on more weight. Gabriel is still growing and is extremely thin so he will need to add some muscle to be able to handle the more physical nature of college basketball but he has a lot of skill and tremendous upside so his addition would be huge for any of these schools.
Gabriel's last scheduled visit is to Duke in October so unless one of the schools really blows him away a decision shouldn't be expected until the middle of October.
