Four-star recruit Castle commits to the Huskies

A man’s home is his castle, and Stephon Castle’s new home will be UConn.

Castle, a national top-30 recruit from Georgia, committed to UConn on Friday evening. The 6-foot-6, Class of 2023 combo guard chose the Huskies over Georgia and Auburn, both much closer to his Covington, Ga. home, as well as several other schools.

“The environment, the coaching staff,” Castle told Hearst Connecticut Media of his reasons for choosing UConn. “They really made me feel like family.”

Castle was thought to be an Auburn lean prior to his official visit to Storrs two weeks ago. Associate head coach Kimani Young, the rest of the Huskies’ staff and Castle’s father, Stacey, arranged to have Castle’s grandmother, Ann James, surprise Stephon and his mother, Quannette, while on the visit. Stephon hadn’t seen James, who lives in New York, since before the pandemic hit in March, 2020.

“It was crazy,” Stephon told Hearst Connecticut Media after the visit. “I was shocked and happy to see her.”

“It was a teary sight,” added Quannette, who is James’s daughter. “It was very thoughtful, very caring.”

On Friday night, at a party celebrating his commitment, Castle re-iterated how important that gesture meant towards his decision.

“That was very important,” he said. “It actually meant a lot.”

The idea was hatched about a week earlier, when Stacey was up from Georgia for his goddaughter’s baby shower in New York. Stacey and Quannette are both from New York, where they first met while in middle school.

It also served as a birthday surprise for Stephon, who turned 17 on Nov. 1.

“To me, it’s the small things, it’s all about relationships,” Quannette said shortly after the visit. “I just felt like that was very

thoughtful for them to think ‘Hey, it’s his birthday. (They) live so far away and (they’re) right here in Connecticut. Let’s go ahead and try to bring his grandma there.’ It makes me feel like family. It’s definitely Stephon’s decision, (but) they are recruiting all of us.”

While Stephon is listed as a combo guard, he clearly favors playing point guard. Apparently, so does the UConn coaching staff.

“On my visit, they said when I get there, that they see me playing point a lot,” Stephon reported.

Stacey Castle was an AAU teammate of Young and played at Wake Forest and UCF, where he graduated in 1996 after averaging 11.4 points per game as a senior. Directly after his official visit to UConn, Stephon had cut his list down to Auburn, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Arkansas, Ohio State and UConn.

And, as Dan Hurley and his staff have been doing a lot of lately, UConn was victorious.

Contributed photo During his recruiting visit to UConn, Stephon Castle, a 6-foot-6 guard from Georgia, posed with, from left, UConn coach Dan Hurley, Castle’s mother, Quannette, his father, Stacey, and UConn associate head coach Kimani Young.