Sanon Chooses Arizona
On the eve of the Round of 64, which kicks off today, NERR’s top-ranked prospect in the New England class of 2025, Joson Sanon, announced he would be committing to the University of Arizona and reclassifying up to the class of 2024.
Sanon’s announcement came after finalizing his top six options just a week ago: Arizona, Boston College, Kansas, Kentucky, UConn, and Overtime Elite.
The Fall River native has had quite the journey leading up to this point.
He began his high school career at Durfee High School, the home of former NBA player Chris Herren.
Following his only season at Durfee, Sanon received his first offer from Bryant while running with the BABC’s 15u squad during the spring. A transfer to Vermont Academy for the 2021-22 season then ensued, where he picked up an offer from the UMass Minutemen early on.
The grassroots season of 2022 is where things really started to look up for the 6’5” guard. Playing with the BABC at the 16u level, Sanon was a force to be reckoned with as he tore apart defenses as a slashing & shooting threat and picked up two offers out of the Big East in Marquette and Providence.
From the start of the 2022-23 prep season with Vermont Academy onward, his reputation began to blossom at the national level as offers from Power 5 programs began to stack.
In a wild game with the Perkiomen School (PA) at the 2022 Scholar Roundball, Joson was tightly contested on every offensive possession, but he still put on an impressive shooting display with 38 points and a memorable buzzer-beater to send the game to overtime. As the clock was winding down towards 0, Sanon launched a deep three-pointer over multiple contesting defenders to tie it as the clock expired. He then sealed the game in overtime.
A classic Joson Sanon performance that we have seen time and time again.
Sanon is as pure a scorer as they come. He is known for his smooth shooting stroke that is almost impossible to block. He gets up into his shots, releases the ball at the highest point, and uses this to wreak havoc as a shooter in both the mid-range and behind the three-point line. He has a quickness in getting to his spots and knocking them down, while doing so in an efficient manner. To complement his shooting ability, he also uses his tremendous athleticism well to score the ball around the basket. He can flush down a powerful dunk or contort his body around the defender to finish acrobatically.
Scoring comes naturally to Sanon, but there are other aspects of his game that have helped propel him to such prominence. His playmaking vision and ability to draw in defenders as a scoring threat, only to kick the ball out to a shooter or to a cutting man down the lane, are impressive. On top of that, he brings some length at the guard/wing spot which allows him to guard multiple positions and impact the game in other facets.
This season, he was the focal point of the Vermont Academy team who went on to win the NEPSAC-AAA championship just a few weeks ago. Throughout the season, Vermont Academy took down a number of prep school powers in New England, and on the national level, earning a berth in the National Prep Championship.
As for his new team, The Arizona Wildcats finished the regular season at 25-8, good enough for 9th in the nation. Their season-long performance earned them a #2 seed in the postseason, and a matchup with Long Beach State in the round of 64.
A true New Englander through and through, we all look forward to seeing where the basketball career of Joson Sanon goes and will be rooting for him every step of the way!
Joson Sanon