ASU Basketball: Four-star center Enoch Boakye makes pledge to the Sun Devils

Help coming down low

This past year has been a difficult one for the Arizona State men’s basketball team. The Sun Devils have seen their NCAA Tournament hopes cancelled in 2020 and a promising season derailed by injuries and COVID-19 stoppages. Just weeks into the offseason, there were multiple transfers away from the program, most notably Jaelen House.

Today, in the wake of disappointment and frustration, there is good news to report for the team led by Bobby Hurley. Some very good news.

Enoch Boakye, a four-star center in the 247Sports composite rankings, has announced his commitment to play his college career for the Sun Devils.

Boakye is the seventh-highest rated recruit in ASU history. He also is the the next gemstone that Hurley has secured in a recent stretch that has solidified him as one of the best recruiters in the nation.

The Sun Devils were a team chalk-full of guards this past season, and while talented, it was obvious the they lacked a presence inside after Romello White transferred to Ole Miss. Last season, the Sun Devils were one of the worst rebounding teams in the country, by far, finishing 332nd out of 340 Division I NCAA men’s basketball teams.

Boakye is 6-foot-11 and weighs 240 pounds. He isn’t going to single-handedly solve the rebounding woes, which must be a point of emphasis this upcoming season if the Sun Devils want to compete. But with that height in the lineup, next to rising junior forward Jalen Graham, it is safe to wager that the team won’t land on the last page of the NCAA team stats list again.

Originally committed to Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans, Boakye reopened his recruitment in February. There was a lot of speculation Hurley would have to reinforce his frontcourt through the transfer portal, and today’s news might not change that philosophy. But Hurley is the type of coach who believes he can make a splash with any big fish recruit. Today, he snagged a giant one.

This commitment from Boakye, who is from Ontario, harkens back to another outstanding Sun Devil recruit from Canada, Luguentz Dort, from Montreal. By the way, how did that work out?