As Arizona gets ready to take on Arizona State in the first meeting of the in-state rivalry for the 2024-25 season on Saturday, the Wildcats will also face one-time commit Joson Sanon who flipped from UA to ASU last spring.

Sanon was a five-star recruit in the 2025 class out of Vermont where he played high school ball at Vermont Academy. The 6-foot-4, 195-pound guard first committed to Arizona over Kentucky, Kansas and UConn before eventually flipping to ASU.

When Caleb Love announced in May that he would be returning to Arizona for his fifth year, Sanon flipped his commitment to the Sun Devils.

During his press conference on Friday, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd confirmed that the decision by Love to return to the program impacted Sanon's decision of where he was going to play college basketball.

Arizona and Lloyd were made fully aware by Sanon and his family that the decision by Love was going to have an impact on his previous commitment to the program.

"They had let us know that if (Love) came back, that coming to Arizona might not be in the cards," said Lloyd during his press conference. "We totally understood that."

Sanon started for the Sun Devils in their first three games of the season and averaged 8.3 points with 11-point performances in each of his first two appearances. He was then sent to the bench after ASU lost to Gonzaga on Nov. 10th, which allowed senior BJ Freeman to start.

Sanon responded to his move to the bench with an impressive six-game stretch from Nov. 14th to Dec. 3rd, when he averaged 19.6 points and the team went 6-0.

The following three games were a struggle for Sanon as he failed to reach double digits in any games and the team went 1-2. During the third game of the stretch, Sanon suffered an ankle injury against BYU and missed five of the next six games for the Sun Devils.

He recently returned last Saturday against Iowa State and scored 8 points by hitting two 3-pointers in 25 minutes off the bench.

On the season, Sanon has averaged 11.8 points per game while shooting 44.9% from 3.

Multiple websites have projected Sanon as a potential first-round pick in the 2025 or 2026 NBA draft. Sports Illustrated's Mock Draft from before the season had Sanon going in the last pick of the first round to the Boston Celtics.

Sanon and the Wildcats will square off for the first time Saturday in Tempe with tipoff between ASU and UA set for 11 a.m. MST.

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