He's six-foot-five, athletic, and possesses a deadly jump shot. Gagan Sahota is also the newest recruit of the UNBC Northern Timberwolves.
Sahota has committed to the UNBC men's basketball team for 2012-13, a season in which the Timberwolves will be a new entry in the Canada West conference of Canadian Interuniversity Sport.
The 19-year-old from Surrey also drew interest from Canada West teams like the University of Calgary, Trinity Western University, UBC Okanagan and Thompson Rivers University but decided the T-wolves suited him best.
"I've been to the Prince George area -- I've got some family there -- and I looked up [UNBC's] college stats and how well they've done and I realize they have a good group of older guys so they can teach me a few things coming into my first year," Sahota said.
Sahota is a graduate of Surrey's Tamanawis secondary school. In his Grade 12 year with the Wildcats senior boys basketball team, he averaged 25 points per game even though he was dealing with a couple of nagging injuries, specifically a broken toe and a chipped bone in the side of his foot.
At the conclusion of his high school career, Sahota went to the Impact Basketball Academy in Las Vegas. There, he ran with and against several NCAA Division 1 players and even some All-Americans.
"It definitely made me better," he said.
"My coaches there were saying I could have gotten into a lower Division 1 [school] or a higher-level D2 but I decided to come back here because there weren't too many options there."
Gagan has a well-developed skill set and hopes to be a solid all-around contributor for the Timberwolves.
"I'm a shooter, for sure," he said. "I like to slash and cut but most of my points come off of jump shots.
"I like to play defence too. In high school I was a defensive stopper. I've got to put on some weight to become a defensive stopper at the CIS level though."
Gagan currently weighs in at 190 pounds.
UNBC head coach Todd Jordan is happy to have Gagan in the mix for 2012-13.
"I definitely think he's going to be able to help us," Jordan said.
"He's six-five so we'll be able to play him in a couple different spots probably. He's more of a perimeter player than a post but we're hoping he'll be able to guard in the post a little bit for us."
Sahota is Jordan's fourth off-season addition to a club that was the 2011-12 B.C. college champion. The other new faces are guards Nolan Hanson of Prince George and Elliot Rowe of Victoria and post player Josh Jebose, who hails from Calgary.
