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San Jose State lands 2013 prospects Jalen James, Rashad Muhammad

wojcik

San Jose State Athletics

With much to be done in his first season as head coach at San Jose State, Dave Wojcik picked up two important commitments in the 2013 class on Saturday.

6-3 point guard Jalen James, who originally committed to attend Illinois, verbally committed to San Jose State on Saturday as reported by multiple outlets. And on Sunday night it was reported by Ray Brewer of the Las Vegas Sun that 6-5 shooting guard Rashad Muhammad, who played his high school basketball at Bishop Gorman (Henderson, Nev.), also verbally committed to the program.

James and Muhammad are Wojcik’s first commitments, and a look at the San Jose State roster reveals how important they are in regards to the 2013-14 season.

At present time San Jose State has just five players on its roster, led by 6-9 senior forward Chris Cunningham. Cunningham averaged 10.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game last season, a campaign that began to roll downhill during WAC play and included the dismissal of leading scorer James Kinney.

On the season the Spartans finished 9-20 overall and 3-14 in WAC play, dropping their final 14 games of the season. That ultimately led to the firing of George Nessman and the hiring of Wojcik, whose brother Doug is currently the head coach at the College of Charleston.

James, a native of Chicago, played his high school basketball at La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind. and was a solid distributor and ball-handler. Muhammad, who was pursued with a great amount of energy by Drake before the firing of Mark Phelps, is the younger brother of former UCLA Bruin Shabazz Muhammad but it would be unfair to expect similar play from Rashad solely because of the bloodlines.

The question for San Jose State now is who else can they grab out of the 2013 class, because even with the two additions there’s still an obvious need for players.

Raphielle also writes for the NBE Basketball Report and can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.