{"id":53896,"date":"2025-11-15T02:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/53896\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T02:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:46:07","slug":"a-prep-signee-injury-update-impressive-numbers-and-overseas-check-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/53896\/","title":{"rendered":"A prep signee, injury update, impressive numbers and overseas check-in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zach White, a 6-foot-6 wing from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High School, verbally committed<\/a>\u00a0to San Diego State two months ago, but it wasn\u2019t until this week that Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher could share his excitement publicly.<\/p>\n

NCAA rules preclude coaches from speaking about \u201crecruitable athletes\u201d until they sign with the school. In the past, it was a binding letter of intent. In the NIL and revenue-sharing era, it is a scholarship agreement, which White inked earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach is going to be a really good Aztec,\u201d Dutcher said of the three-star prospect who plays on a roster loaded with Division I talent. \u201cI watched him this summer, and he\u2019s one of the players I thought was good enough. I targeted him. He impacted winning. He impacted it at the defensive end, which you have to do to play at San Diego State, and he\u2019s a very good, underrated offensive player because he plays on a really good team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the guy who does whatever it takes on his team to win games, and those are the kind of guys we\u2019ve had success with.\u201d<\/p>\n

White was the first, and so far only, signee from the high school class of 2026. The Aztecs had visits from four others<\/a>, but three committed elsewhere and one remains undecided.<\/p>\n

Josh Irving, a 6-11 post from Pasadena High School, eliminated SDSU from his list of three finalists before choosing Texas A&M last month. Anthony Felesi, a 6-6 wing from Utah, picked Pitt over SDSU, UCLA, USC and BYU. Elias Obenyah, a 6-4 guard from Northern California, committed to Stanford over SDSU.<\/p>\n

That leaves 6-4 guard Josiah Johnson from Mayfair High School outside Los Angeles. The son of former Helix High School basketball star Ron Johnson has limited his visits to Southern California schools and the Aztecs remain firmly in the mix, but he hasn\u2019t indicated when he might announce a decision.<\/p>\n

He offers the kind of versatility and mature demeanor that SDSU covets.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll play anywhere,\u201d Dutcher said. \u201cHe can guard multiple positions. He can guard a 4, he can guard a 3, he can guard a 2, he can guard a 1. He\u2019s an undervalued shooter. I\u2019ve been to games where he makes five 3s. And he connects the team. He does whatever it takes to keep it running at both ends of the floor, offense and defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury update<\/p>\n

Dutcher is expected to have his entire roster (minus redshirt Latrell Davis) healthy and available for Tuesday\u2019s game against Troy, the final nonconference tune-up before No. 6 Michigan on Nov. 24 in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

That includes Magoon Gwath, who was cleared for full contact last week, 6 \u00bd months after surgery on his right knee. Dutcher said he hasn\u2019t decided whether the 7-foot sophomore will start or come off the bench Tuesday, only that \u201che\u2019ll play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miles Byrd has had a heavy wrap on his (shooting) left hand all week after spraining a finger Sunday in the 73-57 win against Idaho State. He sat out practices Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The team had Friday off, but he is expected to return to practice Saturday and play Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Defense dominance<\/p>\n

Two games into the season, the Aztecs already rank near the top of Division I in several defensive categories.<\/p>\n

Their 51.0 points allowed is tied for third nationally after holding Long Beach State to 45 and Idaho State to 57. In the Kenpom metric, they are No. 7 in defensive efficiency, behind Houston, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Tennessee, Gonzaga and Duke.<\/p>\n

All of them except Cincinnati are ranked in the Associated Press top 25. The Aztecs moved up one spot in this week\u2019s poll to second among others receiving votes, or 27th overall. They appeared on 17 of 61 ballots and as high as No. 16.<\/p>\n

Center of attention<\/p>\n

One of the season\u2019s pleasant surprises so far has been the center, both of them.<\/p>\n

Miles Heide and Pharaoh Compton have generally split minutes there, and they\u2019ve responded with modest numbers individually that are impressive when put together.<\/p>\n

Against Idaho State, they combined for 23 points and five rebounds in 30 minutes. In the opener against Long Beach State, it was 16 and nine. Through two games, they are shooting a combined 17 of 22, or 77.3%.<\/p>\n

The USD exhibition: 11 points (4 of 5 shooting), 13 rebounds, four blocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting huge production out of that position,\u201d Dutcher said. \u201cYou look at them combined statistically and it\u2019s 20-some points and (close to) double-digit rebounds out of the center position. \u2026 If they continue to be productive, we\u2019ll be really dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreign update<\/p>\n

Malachi Flynn scored the game-winning 3 for Turkish club Bah\u00e7e\u015fehir Koleji, then playfully tossed the ball at an opposing fan after time expired, starting an on-court fracas. He is averaging 21 points and 4.7 assists \u2026 In his most recent game, against Aria Midea, former SDSU teammate Matt Mitchell came off the bench for Bah\u00e7e\u015fehir to score 16 points on 6 of 6 shooting \u2026 Two other members of that 2019-20 Aztecs team are also in Europe \u2013 Nathan Mensah with U-BT Cluj-Napoca in Romania and Jordan Schakel with Filou Oostende in Belgium, while KJ Feagin is playing in Mexico \u2026<\/p>\n

Jaedon LeDee is averaging a double-double (18.5 points, 10.7 rebounds) for Germany\u2019s Fraport Skyliners \u2026 Trey Kell is averaging 23.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists for the Toyama Grouses in Japan\u2019s top league with a high of 44 points against the Yokohama B-Corsairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zach White, a 6-foot-6 wing from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High School, verbally committed\u00a0to San Diego State two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,305,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-53896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}