Arizona State men's basketball lands its highest-ranked prospect in program history
Arizona State men's basketball coach Bobby Hurley has to reload after losing a handful of players to the transfer portal. The coach's efforts have paid off, with the Sun Devils landing a commitment from Jayden Quaintance, a 6-foot-9 center, consensus five-star prospect, and now the highest-ranked recruit in school history.
The Raleigh, North Carolina native out of Word of God Christian Academy is ranked as the No. 8 player nationally, No. 2 at center and No. 1 in his state by 247Sports and is tabbed No. 16 in ESPN's top 100 prospects.
His addition boosts ASU to the No. 6 recruiting class, according to 247Sports, which also pegs it second in the Big 12 behind rival Arizona. The Sun Devils are No. 14 in the hybrid ranking which includes high school additions and the transfer portal acquisitions. Rivals has ASU at No. 11 overall and No. 3 in the Big 12.
Quaintance, who turns 17 in July, is regarded as a potential 2026 lottery pick. He can't be one and done, though, having to play for two years in college because of his age.
More: Bobby Hurley, Arizona State basketball turn heads with Jayden Quaintance commitment
He had 22 offers with ASU beating out the likes of Kentucky, Kansas, Baylor, Ohio State, North Carolina State, Florida and Oregon for his services. He had first committed to Kentucky but started looking into other options after the departure of coach John Calipari to Arkansas. Quaintance was originally scheduled to visit Memphis but canceled that to visit Tempe last weekend.
Louisville was another school in the hunt for the McDonald's All-American, with Quaintance having visited that school the week before coming here.
It is quite a get for Hurley, whose team is coming off a disappointing 14-18 season, which included an 8-12 mark in Pac-12 play, and is headed to the Big 12, considered the best conference in the country in men's basketball. There has been speculation about Hurley's job security, although the coach recently signed a contract extension to keep him in Tempe through 2026.
The Sun Devils graduated one starter in Jose Perez and had two others, Frankie Collins (TCU) and Jamiya Neal (Creighton), opt for the transfer portal. The only players of the 13 on scholarship slated to return are guard Adam Miller, 7-footer Shawn Phillips and sharp-shooter Brycen Long, who was sidelined most of the season.
Quaintance is familiar with one of his future teammates already. He played one year in the Valley at Dream City Christian along with Phillips, who transferred to ASU last year from LSU.
All of the additions help address one of the team's biggest needs and that is size which comes into play when it comes to rebounding. ASU was 348th among 351 Division I schools in rebounding margin at minus-7 and was 292nd in rebounds per game at 33.25.
Hurley has four new acquisitions coming from the transfer portal, one of those being junior guard Austin Nunez, who played at ASU as a true freshman before moving on to Mississippi last season. The other newcomers are 6-6 power forward B.J. Freeman (Wisconsin-Milwaukee), point guard Alston Mason (Missouri State) and 6-9 center Basheer Jihad (Ball State).
There will be four newcomers from the high school ranks. Two of those are four-star prospects in 6-8 Amier Ali out of Canyon International in Glendale and 6-8 Sammie Yeaney out of Compass Prep. The other prep additions are three-star recruits in 6-11 center Jaden Smith out of Chicago Kenwood Academy and 6-4 shooting guard Bo Aldridge out of PHHoenix Prep.
Hurley has one scholarship left to reach the full complement of 13. It will most likely go to another guard.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 5-star center Jayden Quaintance makes commitment to ASU basketball
