{"id":486498,"date":"2026-03-04T14:57:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=486498"},"modified":"2026-03-04T14:57:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:57:53","slug":"byu-lands-another-elite-recruit-5-star-bruce-branch-iii-commits-to-the-cougars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/byu-lands-another-elite-recruit-5-star-bruce-branch-iii-commits-to-the-cougars\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU lands another elite recruit: 5-star Bruce Branch III commits to the Cougars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"1414\" data-end=\"1670\">Five-star small forward <strong data-start=\"1438\" data-end=\"1458\">Bruce Branch III<\/strong> has committed to <strong data-start=\"1476\" data-end=\"1483\">BYU<\/strong>, a source told Rivals. The 6-foot-7 wing was previously the No. 1 player in the 2027 class before moving up, and is now ranked <strong data-start=\"1611\" data-end=\"1621\">No. 10<\/strong> overall in 2026 via the Rivals Industry Ranking.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1672\" data-end=\"1909\">An Arizona native at <strong data-start=\"1693\" data-end=\"1710\">Prolific Prep<\/strong>, Branch chose the Cougars over <strong data-start=\"1742\" data-end=\"1749\">USC<\/strong>, with offers from Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville and others. He becomes BYU\u2019s fourth pledge in the 2026 class, joining Dean Rueckert, Will Openshaw and KJ Perry.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1911\" data-end=\"2192\">Rivals analyst Jamie Shaw highlighted Branch\u2019s \u201cconnectivity\u201d as a wing: spot shooting, ball movement and multi-position defense. Shaw pointed to his defensive upside\u2014length, mobility and timing\u2014while noting his growing value as a steady <strong data-start=\"2149\" data-end=\"2168\">spot-up shooter<\/strong> who can create spacing.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1034\" data-end=\"1125\"><em data-start=\"1034\" data-end=\"1068\">Source: <strong data-start=\"1042\" data-end=\"1067\">Rivals (Joe Tipton)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five-star small forward Bruce Branch III has committed to BYU, a source told Rivals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":486497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[401],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-486498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/03\/Byu.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486498"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=486498"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=486498"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=486498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}