Williams re-commits to Arizona

CERRITOS, California — It's not often that you will see a recruit decommit from a school and make his way back, but for Arizona one of the most important prospects for the future of the program did just that Saturday afternoon. Top-35 2018 point guard Brandon Williams announced his decision to rejoin Sean Miller's program Saturday a little over two months removed from backing off that pledge.

Arizona has always been the childhood favorite for Williams, but when the FBI investigation into college basketball directly involved the Wildcats it brought some reservations from the Encino (Calif.) Crespi standout guard. He eventually decided to back away from that decision he made last year and check out some other options.

Oregon quickly became involved and had him out for an official visit and just last weekend he made it out to Gonzaga for his final official visit of the process.

Williams pushed his decision until the end with discussions among his family going into Friday. The Ducks went into the announcement as the favorite but his connection with UA proved to be too strong.

"Arizona is a great school," he told GOAZCATS.com Thursday night ahead of his decision. "Coach Miller is there. Coach (Mark) Phelps is a great recruiter. They've got some guys there that have got some potential like Brandon Randolph and Ira (Lee)."

Williams' pledge to UA is a big one and is one that will help the Wildcats speed up the process of getting back on track after a rocky last several months. At one point the program was on pace to have one of the top classes in the country, and while Williams doesn't get Arizona back into that discussion he is a big help in boosting the profile of the program in a recruiting sense.

His pledge will help prove that UA has turned a corner from the last several months and that could help influence other highly-ranked recruits to start strongly considering the program again. Williams is now UA's top-rated recruit and the fifth to join the program this spring.