Arizona Marvelous Ideas: Devonaire Doutrive commits to Arizona

The Wildcats have their first 2018 commit

The Arizona Wildcats’ 2018 class is barren no more.

The UA received a commitment from four-star guard Devonaire Doutrive on Saturday, per Evan Daniels of 247Sports. The Van Nuys, California native was officially visiting the school this weekend.

A 6-foot-5, 185-pound guard, Doutrive is the No. 82 player in his class and No. 16 shooting guard, per 247Sports composite rankings.

He also had offers from Georgetown, Arizona State, and UNLV.

Doutrive will join an Arizona team that returns Brandon Randolph, Dylan Smith, and Emmanuel Akot on the wing. None of those players were particularly impressive in their first season in the desert, so Doutrive will have a chance to compete for immediate playing time.

While no stats are available from Doutrive’s senior season, he led Birmingham High School to the CIF SoCal Division II Regional Final where his team lost to former UA commit Shareef O’Neal and Crossroads. Doutrive scored 15 points in the 54-50 loss.

Arizona still has up to six scholarship slots to fill, but perhaps Doutrive’s commitment will start a domino effect and other 2018 prospects will follow suit and pledge to the Wildcats. Arizona’s recruiting efforts have been hampered by its involvement in the FBI’s investigation into college basketball recruiting (and later by ESPN’s Sean Miller wiretap report).

The Wildcats have been pursuing four-star point guards Brandon Williams and James Akinjo, along with five-star forward Jordan Brown, three-star center Lukas Kisunas, and several graduate transfers.

One publication believes Arizona is the “team to beat” for Akinjo, a former UConn signee who was released from his National Letter of Intent after the school fired then-head coach Kevin Ollie.