Foothills Christian senior TJ Leaf committed to Steve Alford and the UCLA Bruins Thursday afternoon in a live announcement on ESPNU from a downtown San Diego studio.
The highly recruited basketball player had whittled his list down to three schools with Pac-12 rival Oregon and San Diego State among the finalists.
Leaf is a skilled 6-foot-10 forward that ranks as a 5-star recruit by most recruiting services.
ESPN ranks Leaf as the Number 13 overall prospect for the class of 2016. Rivals.com projects him #15 as well.
Leaf wore a black suit with a red and gray tie for the televised announcement, leading some fans on social media to assume he might be leaning towards the hometown Aztecs.
He confessed afterwards he wasn't even thinking about color scheme and that was just his favorite tie.
The El Cajon native said he felt the best connection with Alford and felt that his style of play will translate well to UCLA’s system.
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ESPN ranks UCLA's incoming recruiting class for 2016 as one of the Top 5 in the country. The Bruins are ranked as 4th best - right behind stellar programs such as Kentucky and Duke.
