Four-star recruit Castle picks 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.
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.”
The idea was hatched about a week earlier, Stacey was up from Atlanta, where the Castles live, for his goddaughter’s baby shower in New York. 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.”
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 won.