Is he or isn't he?

Is freshman backcourter Gary Winston at Idaho or elsewhere?

The Scout Go Vandals site -- basketball message board -- has a 'conversation' posted which seems to indicate that Winston is back in Washington. If true, here's hoping he gets back to Moscow.

A great feature on Gary Winston

Gary Winston is an Idaho basketball commit who unfortunately endured a period of time where some dishonorable message board posters -- as opposed to the few (hey, we're joking -- we think) -- started a rumor that Winston had de-committed. In fact, we were told it was true by a source and, much to our chagrin, posted the errant "news" -- only to regret it.

He has always been solid for Idaho and vice versa and the following feature offers some insight into the young man. A tio of the hat to Wazzu4288 for posting this on the Scout GoVandals.net Idaho basketball message board:

Wa-Hi’s Winston jumps ‘with bigger guys’ on gridiron, hoops court
Wa-Hi WR Gary Winston makes the most of his less-than-6-foot height on the basketball court as well as on the gridiron.
Don Davis
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
October 8, 2009

Even with nagging sore knees Gary Winston can jump out of the gym.

And he knows it, so it doesn’t matter any more if he didn’t grow up to be between 6-foot-4 and 6-6 like he wanted to when he was just a little tyke.

“I’ve been described at anywhere from 5-10 to 6-1 or 6-2,” Winston said, with an easy-going smile. “I wish that I was 6-foot-1, but I’m only about 5-11 and three-quarters (and 190 pounds). I’m about 6-feet and one-half inch with my shoes on...

Go here for the remainder.

The Gary Winston Factual File

After belatedly coming to the conclusion that the Gary Winston/Idaho situation was still too hazy, we decided to seek clarification. Taking a two-pronged approach, we emailed a number of reporters in the Walla Walla coverage area and struck gold with Rene Ferran. We also sought to talk with Gary Winston Sr. and succeeded.

Ferran, a sports reporter for the Tri Cities Herald, beat everyone to the punch. He has an article up with the plain truth:

Rene Ferran
Out of Bounds
Tri Cities Herald
September 21, 2009

..."I've heard the same stuff, too, and it's not true," he {Gary Winston Jr.] said. "I don't know how it got started, but I am still going to Idaho..."

Go here for the full story. Thank you Rene for taking the time and making the effort here.

After speaking with Gary Winston Sr. Monday afternoon, we at PTW composed this:

Go straight to the source is the Golden Rule of journalism and that's the path we should have followed in originally determining the status of Walla Walla prepster Gary Winston and his verbal commitment to Idaho basketball coach Don Verlin.

Despite some contrary and (of course) anonymous postings on various message boards, Gary Winston Sr. said yesterday on the phone that his son is going to officially become a Vandal come the November signing period. That absolutely removes any so-called question marks or doubts, period.

We asked Mr. Winston why his son chose Idaho and he said, "Gary was impressed with the coaching staff and the school layout and liked that it wasn't a huge university where you can get lost." As to the latter, he was speaking more of disappearing in the proverbial shuffle as a student. The Vandal coaches and support people also answered all the questions the younger Winston put to them.

Having not witnessed him play, we also inquired as to the younger Winston's best basketball skills and the elder Winston qualified his answer with "keep in mind it's coming from his father" and offered "quickness, leaping ability, mid-range jumper and defensive play."

John Golden, Winston's high school coach, added this about his player. "Gary is one of the hardest working players I've ever been around. He's right up there with '99 grad Kyle Bankhead who went on to play at Gonzaga. He is constantly working on his game and pushing himself to get better. He's been a great role model for our younger players in the community. I look forward to seeing him as a Vandal, but am even more excited to have him here for another year!"

Okay, NOW you have it, no if, ands or buts...or anonymous postings.

Congrats to Gary Winston and the Winston family and another thank you to Rene Ferran for his timely work..

Gary Winston, ex-Vandal

Recently, an email arrived asking if we knew anything about Gary Winston, a 2010 Walla Walla, Washington prepster, deciding to nullify his verbal commit to play basketball at Idaho and open up his recruitment.

We had nothing on this one.

But a lightbulb went off and we remembered Jim Basnight and his Husky Digest site. It is U-Dub focused but Basnight also has connections all over the state and beyond. Anyone interested in hoops information throughout the Evergreen State should be a subscriber.

So we sent an email to Jim.

He got back to us with: "There have been reports on various internet sites that 2010 guard Gary Winston of Walla Walla has decommitted from Idaho and is thought to be headed to either WSU or OSU. Winston is an under the radar kid..."

So there you go.

Winston also is a footballer and initially was going to refrain from playing as a senior. That also changed. Here is a September 11 column containing that news (scroll down to the fourth item).

Here is a July, 2009 ESPN evaluation of Winston the basketballer.