Stanley Johnson is staying on the West Coast.
The 6-foot-6 Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei wing became the latest member of the famed Oakland Soldiers AAU program to pick Arizona on Friday, choosing Sean Miller’s program over USC, Kentucky, Oregon and Florida.
“I’m going to the University of Arizona,” Johnson said on ESPNU as he held up two Arizona sneakers.
“Arizona’s a great school overall. What put me over the top for them is just the way they recruited me since freshman year. And Coach [Sean] Miller has been great for me, genuine, honest. His coaching staff has been totally up front with me from the beginning…And just the genuine nature of the coaches and the family feeling I got when I got on campus.
“I always tell people I want the feeling of family and when I got on campus, the two times I’ve been there with my family, they showed out the best.”
Asked if he would try to keep former Oakland Soldiers teammate Aaron Gordon on campus for another year, Johnson smiled and said, “He’s probably long gone.”
Johnson joins point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright and power forward Craig Victor in the 2014 class at Arizona.
A projected top-10 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, Johnson was arguably the most impressive wing on the AAU summer circuit, where he was courted by everyone from Miller to John Calipari to Bill Self.
“[Arizona] right now has a top-5 or top-7 program in the country and he just makes it better,” longtime New York recruiting analyst Tom Konchalski told SNY.tv.
“He’s so versatile defensively, he can guard multiple positions. He’s almost as important defensively as he is offensively. He solidifies them as probably the top program in the West Coast.”
