Five-star Alkins headed West

Just a few short weeks ago, five-star senior Rawle Alkins said that he wanted to take a few more official visits before making his college decision.

As it turns out, official visits to Arizona, St. John's and UNLV were enough for the 6-foot-5 shooting guard at Raleigh (N.C.) Word of God to make up his mind.

On ESPNU Monday night, the No. 9 player in the class of 2016 announced that he will attend Arizona.

In Alkins, Arizona has landed a powerful shooting guard who is built for contact.

Alkins loves to get his shoulders into the chest of defenders on drives to the hoop and he uses them to move them around to his advantage and score, or draw trips to the free throw line.

A flashy ball handler, emotional player and streaky shooter from deep, Alkins is an exciting transition finisher and the type of guy who is capable of putting up big numbers in a hurry.

In an effort to concentrate on his academics, Alkins decided to sit out the latter part of his senior year at Word of God. That begs the question of whether or not he could develop any rust in his game that he has to work through at Arizona. Provided he takes advantage of Arizona's strength and conditioning program, though, he should be more than physically ready to play Pac 12 basketball.

With Alkins in the fold, Sean Miller and his staff have a talented group of prospects committed for the class 2016. Like Alkins, combo guard Kobi Simmons is a five-star prospect whose specialty is creating one on one opportunities. Skilled power forward Lauri Markkanen from Finland is a high end four-star prospect who will receive heavy consideration for five-star status in the spring.

Even with those three committed, Arizona isn't done for 2016. They are still heavily targeting the No. 1 player in the class Josh Jackson and could make a run at recently opened up shooting guard Terrance Ferguson.