{"id":343389,"date":"2023-11-02T00:16:56","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T01:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=343389"},"modified":"2023-11-02T02:00:43","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T02:00:43","slug":"why-did-4-star-jaden-smith-commit-to-arizona-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=343389","title":{"rendered":"Why did 4-star Jaden Smith commit to Arizona State?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late last week, Jaden Smith picked Arizona State in what was a major recruiting win for head coach Bobby Hurley.<\/p>\n

A 6-foot-11 center at Kenwood Academy High School (Chicago, Illinois), Smith is a tremendous defensive presence. As a junior, he averaged 5.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks<\/a>\u00a0per game.<\/p>\n

He held a number of offers including DePaul, Fordham, Georgia Tech, Loyola (Chicago) and TCU among others. Ranked a four-star recruit according to ESPN<\/a>, he was the first commitment in the 2024 class for Hurley and Arizona State.<\/p>\n

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“I chose Arizona State because it felt like home,” Smith told USA TODAY High School Sports.<\/p>\n

“I feel that I can thrive in their system and they can help me achieve my dreams of playing in the NBA, and more importantly, winning while I’m there.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Hurley impact can’t be understated.<\/p>\n

In his eight years at Arizona State, he has taken the Sun Devils to the NCAA Tournament three times. Last year, they finished 23-13.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hurley has done a solid job in rebuilding the program and in recruiting talent like Smith.<\/p>\n

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“Coach Hurley is a legendary coach, learned a lot from him already and feel that I can learn a lot more from him,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

“He is the blueprint for what it takes to be great and to be successful at the pro and collegiate level. I look forward to building a stronger relationship with him because he is everything I want in a coach.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Smith admits that he plays with a chip on his shoulder, which might come as a bit of a surprise given that he is a highly-ranked recruit.<\/p>\n

But he said that he feels like there is still a lot to prove and he brings that mentality to Arizona State.<\/p>\n

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“I feel like that’s how I got to be,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

“Got to stay humble and hungry at all times – never too high, never too low, and just staying confident and aggressive.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jaden Smith talks his Arizona State basketball commitment.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343390,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343389\/revisions\/343390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/286601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=343389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=343389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}