Comfort leads Spight to ASU pledge

Andre Spight didn't need to take an official visit to Arizona State to know he wants to make it his next home.

Spight, a 6-foot-2, 170 pound combo guard at South Plains Community College in Levelland, Texas, committed to the Sun Devils Sunday sight unseen.

"It was just the relationships," Spight said. "I knew I was going to go there already and I talked to coach (Herb) Sendek and he asked me, 'Who else has been recruiting you like we have for as long as we have?' They've been amazing and made me feel like I'm their priority."

An official visit to Tempe is on the docket in several weeks. The difference now is it'll likely be Spight's only one. He had planned to visit Creighton and was considering scheduling a trip to Oregon, but that won't happen now, he said.

Spight also rejected overtures from a lot of other schools, too many to count he said, but estimated about 25 were prepared to offer scholarships. Most of those inquiries came after his performance at Jerry Mullen's Top-100 Camp in St. Louis in July but by then it was too late.

The connections he'd established with several other schools, and especially ASU initially via first-year assistant Barret Peery, weighed too heavily to be overcome.

"Coach says they don't really focus too much on positions and just let their players go out and make plays and use all of their skills and I like that," Spight said. "I'm a combo guard. I'm known as a shooter by a lot of people but I've been working a lot on being a better facilitator. I already handle the ball well and see the floor so really it's just been about managing [a team] better and I've gotten better at that."

Last season as a freshman at South Plains Spight averaged 16 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and shot 37.3 percent from 3-point range. He's widely considered among the better guard prospects nationally at the junior college level, a standout participant at both of the summer's highest profile all-star camps.

Originally from Pasadena, Calif., Spight signed with UTEP but didn't qualify. Returning to the west is appealing, Spight said, and playing in the Pac-12 for a program that has made a commitment to developing and showcasing junior college players is as well.

"I'm looking forward to it," Spight said. "I feel like I can trust the coaches and they'll do a good job of helping me continue to get better at the little things and it'll be a good place for me all the way around."