The International Wing Brings Potential To The Flats
Josh Pastner and the Yellow Jackets got their first incoming freshman commit for 2022 when Latvian international Freds Pauls Bagatskis announced his commitment to the Yellow Jackets. Bagatskis has spent the last four years playing in Spain. He started with Valencia’s U18 team before moving to their 2nd team when he aged out of the U18 league.
As far as I can tell, not a whole lot is known about his game. International prospects generally aren’t scouted by the popular services as much. He is listed anywhere between 6’7 and 6’9 and is very lanky. He could probably play small forward or power forward, or maybe even shooting guard if he’s athletic. It’s tough to tell on the tape. He may need to put on some weight. Several sources list him as being a good three-point shooter and his stroke looks smooth on his highlight tapes. I will note that his highlight tapes seem to mostly be shooting (sometimes off the dribble), not a whole lot I’ve seen of him at the rim.
Bagatskis’ father, Ainars, had a 20-year career playing all around Europe and with Latvia’s national team. He transitioned to coaching and is now the head coach for Ukraine’s national team.
With this signing Georgia Tech is up to 11 scholarship players for the season. That leaves two open spots on the team. This is getting really late into the offseason to be adding new players, but people are still figuring out the transfer portal so there could still be more moves coming.