BREAKING: Jabari Walker Joins the Herd

2020 Four-star forward has pledged to Tad Boyle and company he will be joining them in Boulder.

Jabari Walker made his intentions known on Tuesday. He wants to be a Colorado Buffalo.

110% committed- thank you to everyone who supported me along the way!❤️ pic.twitter.com/FYA0TEyihX

— Jabari Walker (@JabariWalker) April 7, 2020

“I've had meetings with the coaches, I've met pretty much all the coaches on the staff now,” Walker said. “And I've gotten comfortable with them through conversations and they’ve sent me pictures of the facility and videos. And I've talked to people that go there, there's a lot of connections I have there, and everything has been great. I've heard no complaints about Colorado. It has everything that I’m looking for in a college.”

The four-star forward narrowed his decision down to three schools, Colorado, St. Mary’s and California, a couple of weeks ago. He was hoping to be able to take some visits but when the NCAA pushed the dead period back through May 31, Walker knew he was going to have to make his decision.

So besides working out, he’s spent most of the last week or so scouring Youtube and taking his own official visits. He’s also been having Zoom meetings with the coaching staffs to try and figure out where he felt the most comfortable.

“It kind of came to me in like one or two days, just talking with my dad,” Walker said. “And it was kind of hard in the beginning. And then once I saw the facilities and just started really thinking about it and just talking to people, it made it easier. And there are just a lot more pros and I couldn't really find any cons. And that made the decision kind of easy.”

Walker has leaned on his dad, Samaki, throughout this process. His dad played at Louisville and was the 9th overall draft pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He spent ten seasons in the NBA before playing internationally for five years.

“(My dad) would give me a lot of advice, he wouldn't make a decision for me,” Walker said. “So he would just tell me what he got from talking to the coaches. And from what his experience was with college, and basketball in general, he knows real and he knows what's fake. And he would just tell me I talked to this coach, he sounds real genuine.”

Walker said his dad came away very impressed with the CU coaching staff, especially the head man.

“After talking to one coach, I think it was (head coach Tad Boyle). I think he fell in love,” Walker said. “I had called him and he was like, ‘Yeah I think this is the right decision.’ And we kind of knew from there. And (before he said that), I kind of knew too because I had already done my research. So we just met in the middle.”

One of the things that sold Walker on Colorado is the family atmosphere. The 6-foot-8 forward has spent a lot of time rewatching some of the CU games from this past season and said the chemistry jumps out of the screen.

“The first thing you can see on film is the chemistry,” Walker said. “You can't really tell that with a lot of schools but it's amazing watching Colorado play. Like even when they were down to Dayton, they came back and fought together. You could just see the energy they were playing with. It seems like a true brotherhood and they all play together.”

Walker has a very similar build to Tyler Bey. They are about the same height and have very long arms so Walker will slot nicely in that role. Walker is not the same player, he has a different offensive game and doesn’t have the same athleticism defensively but he could get there with some work in the training room.

This fills one of the three remaining scholarships the Buffaloes have open for the 2020 class.

A full breakdown of Walker can be found here.