The verbal commitments continue to roll in for Kelly Graves.
Lydia Giomi, a 6-foot-5 center from West Seattle High School, became the Oregon women’s basketball program’s fifth class of 2016 verbal commitment on Wednesday morning.
“I’m a big family person,” Giomi said. “I love the family feeling at Oregon. Just the coaches, they were like ‘We’re part of a family here. We want to help support you.’ Not only as basketball players, but also as people. That’s so amazing in a program.”
Giomi averaged 14.8 points a game and 10.6 rebounds last season while shooting 52.6 percent from the floor, helping West Seattle to a 22-3 record.
Giomi is a four-star rated center by Dan Olson and HoopGurlz, who first reported her commitment. Olson has Giomi as his No. 58-ranked player in the nation and 12th among post players.
University of Oregon here I come. So excited to be a part of the duck family💚💛🐥🏀 pic.twitter.com/U3z1MSJJzm
— Lyds (@Lydiagiomi) June 3, 2015
Giomi said her grandma and grandpa are UO alums, along with her grandparents and uncle.
She visited the Oregon campus in the fall and then again a couple of weeks ago.
She was named Metro League MVP for the 2014-2015 season and also was selected to the Seattle Times’ all-area team for 2015. The Seattle Times said she’s “one of the state’s most coveted recruits in the class of 2016.”
“She hasn’t even begun to reach her potential,” said Damian Young, Giomi’s AAU coach for Tree of Hope. “She’s super hard working. She’s got it in her DNA. Her dad played at the collegiate level.”
Oregon guard Lexi Petersen also played for Tree of Hope in high school.
“She’ll be a great tremendous teammate,” Young said. “She’s very humble. She’s going to give her at all at whatever they ask her to.”
Giomi joins 6-foot-1 guard Jayde Woods (Yorba Linda, CA), 6-3 forward Sierra Campisano (San Diego, CA), 6-4 post Mallory McGwire (Reno, Nevada) and 5-9 guard Morgan Yaeger (Forestville, Australia) in the Ducks’ 2016 class.
“I think the girls I’ve been recruited with to come into this class are really great people,” Giomi said. “Even just today, I’ve had a bunch of them texting me… I was like, ‘I made the right decision.’”
Giomi selected the Ducks over Washington, Oregon State, Colorado, Santa Clara, Washington State and Stanford.
“It’s that ’16 class that we want to get,” Graves said in March after the season ended. “That’s the one that we’ve put most of our attention into. That will be the class that will define our program forever.”
Giomi was planning on taking more visits, but after her visit to Eugene, she felt confident in her decision.
“It’s so exciting,” Giomi said. “It feels so good.”
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne
