Iowa State basketball transfer Rasir Bolton commits to Gonzaga

Iowa State basketball transfer Rasir Bolton has committed to Gonzaga, he announced Friday.

Last season, Bolton averaged 15.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game for the Cyclones, earning third-team All-Big 12 honors. He ranked No. 10 on The Athletic's list of best available transfer players. He'll join a Zags team that went 31-1 last season and reached the national championship, where they lost to Baylor.

Bolton started his college career at Penn State, transferring after his freshman year (2018-19) as a result of then-head coach Pat Chambers directing racially insensitive and hurtful language toward Bolton in a meeting.

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What does Bolton bring to a team?

Brian Hamilton, senior college basketball writer: He's a proven, known quantity as a playmaker at the power-conference level for three seasons. Bolton has averaged 18.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists per 40 minutes in his stops at Penn State and Iowa State, and while his effective field goal percentage has risen each season, it's not because he's evolved into a long-range threat. Bolton's 3-point percentage has declined in each of his three college seasons. He'll be at his best when putting pressure on the defense in screen-and-rolls and as a finisher in the lane and at the rim. A guard who plays like that makes a lot of sense in Gonzaga's system.

How does Bolton fit at Gonzaga?

Hamilton: Bolton isn't the surpassing, NBA Draft Lottery-bound talent that Jalen Suggs is, but a like-for-like replacement seems to be what Mark Few and Co. are after. Bolton has a similar size (6-foot-3, 185 pounds). He'll be on the attack offensively. He can facilitate for others. He can hit the glass. But he's similarly prone to turnovers (3.9 per 40 minutes last season) and, most critically, not as good a defender. We can't consider this an even trade. The Gonzaga staff has to harness Bolton's best traits and help Bolton get the turnovers under control. He'll be something like the second-to-fourth option most of the time…but maybe a little less pressure helps in this regard?

What will the Zags look like next season?

Hamilton: First of all, still pretty big. You're talking about a rotation in which Bolton and Dominick Harris might be the smallest players at 6-3 and one in which 7-foot freshman Chet Holmgren frequently will operate from the perimeter on offense. Drew Timme's stay-or-go decision looms incredibly large. If he stays, Gonzaga challenges for a title again in 2022. If he goes, Gonzaga has to rely on more unproven talent than it would prefer to. It's high-end talent, of course. But multiple important pieces going through a learning curve might make for some rough sledding early.

(Photo: David K Purdy / Getty Images)

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