Taeshon Cherry, the five-star recruit who last month decommitted from USC, committed to Arizona State on Tuesday night, according to multiple reports.
The 6-9 power forward is the second five-star recruit in the class of 2018 signed by Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley. Cherry teams with Canadian shooting guard Luguentz Dort to give the Sun Devils one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.
“I’m going to Arizona State and I picked them because I feel like Coach [Bobby] Hurley is a great coach,” Cherry told 247Sports.com. “When I went on that official a couple of days ago and it felt like home to me. They treated me like family. He’s a fiery competitor and it’s just what I wanted. He’s everything I wanted and more. Me and him really bonded together.”
Cherry, who plays prep ball at Foothills Christian High School in El Cajon, Calif., had committed last June to play for USC. However, he was recruited by associate head coach Tony Bland, who was one of four assistant coaches from around the country the FBI arrested in September in the "pay-to-play" recruiting scandal. Although the Los Angeles Times identified Cherry as one of the anonymous players listed in the federal criminal complaint against Bland, Cherry's mother denied he had any connection to the scandal.
Cherry apparently still had been planning to attend USC, but a family member told the Times that USC coaches stopped speaking to Cherry in recent weeks. He visited the ASU campus last weekend and also had een considering Texas A&M before settling on the Sun Devils.
