SPOKANE, Wash. – Aaron Cook, a transfer from Southern Illinois, signed a financial aid agreement to attend Gonzaga University and will join the men's basketball team for the 2020-21 season.
 
Cook, a 6-2 185-pound guard, will graduate from Southern Illinois. He will be immediately eligible to play as a graduate transfer. The native of Saint Louis, Mo., boasts a 3.1 GPA and is majoring in exercise science with a minor in marketing. He was named to the Missouri Valley Conference's scholar-athlete second team after his junior and sophomore seasons.
 
"Aaron will be a great addition and teammate," Head Coach Mark Few said. "We've been blessed to have great grad-transfers, and Aaron will be along those lines. He is going to help us a bunch next season."
 
Cook played in just six games as a senior before suffering a broken right (shooting) hand against Murray State on Nov. 19. He had surgery and will receive a medical redshirt. Cook was leading the Salukis in scoring (15.0) and assists (3.3) when his season was cut short. He was shooting 55.2 percent from the field. Cook earned a spot on The Sunshine Slam All-Tournament team after averaging 17 points, 4.3 steals, 3.7 assists and 2.7 rebounds over the four games in the event in Florida in November. He became the fourth player in program history to record seven or more steaks in a game, making seven versus Oakland on Nov. 10.
 
Cook joins a Bulldog squad that qualified for their 22^nd straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Gonzaga finished the shortened season at 31-2, going 15-1 in West Coast Conference play, winning the league regular season title for a national-best eighth straight season. The Zags welcome back a talented team in 2020-21, along with arguably their best-ever recruiting class, and multiple media outlets have ranked GU in the Top-3 in their early preseason projections.