It’s been a busy day for the backcourts in Tucson and Tempe with players staying, coming and going for both Arizona and ASU.
Early in the day, reports of long-time Arizona commit Jamari Phillips opening up his recruitment came out.
Later in the day, Arizona guard and reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year Caleb Love announced he is withdrawing his name from the NBA Draft and will be re-joining the Arizona Wildcats.
Love tallied 18.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists in his first year at Arizona. He’ll lead an experienced backcourt with KJ Lewis and Jaden Bradley also returning and Campbell transfer Anthony Dell’Orso joining the team. Those four would presumably eat up a lot of the Wildcats’ minutes in the back court, and Phillips’ departure make
Then things got REALLY interesting.
31 minutes after Love announced his return to Arizona, elite guard and Wildcat commit Joson Sanon announced he would be flipping to Ariona State, giving Bobby Hurley his highest-rated recruiting class ever.
Sanon – the No. 22 player in the 2024 class according to 247Sports – committed to Arizona in late March and announced his commitment to Arizona State nearly two months later.
247Sports’ Adam Finkelstein had this to say about Sanon’s scoring ability:
Sanon is a volume scoring wing who is capable of getting his shot at multiple levels. His best weapon over the years has been his mid-range pull-up game, with good lift into his release. Within the last year, we’ve seen his range extend out to the three-point line with the same ability to rise-up into his shot. He’s very adept at getting to his spots and capable of getting downhill in the open floor, but doesn’t put quite as much pressure on the rim when operating within the half-court.
Sanon joins five-star big Jayden Quaintance, Amier Ali and Sammie Yeaney as top-100 commits in the Sun Devils’ class as well as guard Bo Aldridge. ASU currently holds the No. 3 overall class in the nation. The Devils also added BJ Freeman, Alston Mason, Basheer Jihad, Austin Nunez and Brandon Gardner through the transfer portal this offseason.
