Tajh Ariza, ex-NBA veteran's son, picks Oregon

Top-25 enlistee Tajh Ariza has committed to Oregon, helium announced Friday, arsenic the lad of erstwhile NBA seasoned Trevor Ariza chose the Ducks implicit USC.

The momentum successful Ariza's recruitment had gone back-and-forth betwixt Oregon and the Trojans implicit the past mates of weeks, peculiarly aft helium canceled a scheduled sojourn to Kansas and subsequently chopped Kentucky from his database arsenic well.

"They are going to hole maine for the adjacent level," Ariza told ESPN of Oregon. "Coach [Dana] Altman told maine that they person minutes for maine and request maine to play arsenic a freshman but told maine I indispensable gain those minutes. 'We indispensable spot your work.' I person to gain it."

He took authoritative visits to each of his finalists earlier this fall, but Altman and Oregon were capable to bushed retired USC successful caller days.

"The sojourn was great," Ariza said. "Coach Altman is simply a hoops guy, but helium truly connected with maine and my family. He sees maine not lone arsenic a hoops subordinate but arsenic a person. He is simply a straightforward guy."

"I was shooting successful the gym with the Oregon azygous connected and Coach Altman was there," helium continued. "He corrected my shot, and past I made astir 30 threes successful a row. I got the chills making each those shots and that's erstwhile I felt helium was the manager for me."

One of the champion tiny forwards successful the 2026 class, Ariza is ranked No. 24 wide successful the SC Next 100. He's the archetypal top-25 enlistee for Altman since Kwame Evans Jr. and Mookie Cook committed successful the 2023 class. The agelong 6-foot-9 helping plays for St. John Bosco High School (California) and suited up for Team Why Not connected the Nike EYBL circuit past outpouring earlier missing the summertime play with an injury.

Ariza has a blend of skill, large positional size astatine 6-foot-10 portion being a existent triple-threat imaginable with immense upside. His shooting and ball-handling is beardown but it's his passing which is vastly underrated. He's a imaginable point-forward successful the aboriginal due to the fact that of his vision, accuracy and interaction connected his passes. There are moments successful the crippled wherever helium tin power the crippled connected the solid and with overgarment points. Ariza has an effectual face-up crippled and is simply a superb jock with magnitude and fluid movements, and is unsafe with the shot successful his hands oregon arsenic an off-ball scorer.

Ariza is Oregon's 2nd committedness successful the 2026 class, pursuing two-sport prima Kendre Harrison picking the Ducks past November. Harrison committed to Oregon for some basketball, wherever he's ranked No. 61 successful the SC Next 100, and football, wherever he's No. 12 wide successful the 2026 class.

It volition beryllium absorbing to spot whether Ariza's determination has an interaction connected the recruitment of No. 1 wide imaginable Tyran Stokes. Stokes is considering Kentucky, Oregon, Kansas and USC, and he's thought to beryllium closing successful connected a imaginable announcement.