Four-star guard Joshua Lewis announced his commitment to South Florida on Tuesday night. A long-time target of Bulls coaches, the Blake HS standout decided to go public with his decision and join the future class for second-year head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim.

"My relationship with coach Amir and my fit in the offense and the game style they play and the relationship with the coaches and USF being close to home all factored into my decision to commit," Lewis told Bulls Insider.

Lewis took an official visit last week down the road to USF and that closed the deal for the Bulls.

"The official visit last week was from Monday to Tuesday and it was a great visit and that is ultimately what made me decide to commit," he said. "I'm shutting down my recruitment and I will sign with USF in November."

The family connection didn't hurt either, Lewis' father Fred Lewis was a star player for the Bulls from 1989-92 as well as his son's head coach. The elder ranks in USF’s all-time top-20 in career points with 1,105 points scored.

"My family are super excited about my decision," the younger Lewis added.

Seeing everything up close and personal and the jump the Bulls have made in one season under Abdur-Rahim was eye-opening for Lewis who grew up during the worst stretch of basketball in program history.

"It was huge seeing what Coach Amir did in one year at USF and how he turned around the entire program that had been so bad for ten years and then seeing all the support from the fans and people in the area was big," he said. "Coach Amir was super excited when I told him I was committing and I feel like I'm jumping aboard something special. Coach Amir has a bright future and I want to be a part of that."

USF assistant coach Desmond Oliver also played a large role along with Abdur-Rahim in Lewis' recruitment.

"Coach Des and I talk a lot and we have a great relationship and can talk about anything and everything," he said. "Coach Amir is awesome and we talk multiple times per week or FaceTime and we have a great relationship as well."

With his position at 50 in the Rivals rankings he is the highest-rated commitment for the men's basketball program in history passing Caleb Murphy (63) and John Egbunu (83) as the highest-rated commits before Lewis. Lewis believes he can help fill the Chris Youngblood-type role in the Bulls offense in the future.

Lewis picked the Bulls over offers from Cincinnati, Illinois, Ole Miss, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech. Our dear friend Russ Wood did a full write-up on Lewis back in September.