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Three-star power forward commits to San Diego State

Wash 4A Boys Championship Basketball

Federal Way’s Jalen McDaniels, center, celebrates with teammates as he leaves the game in the second half of the boys 4A high school basketball championship against Davis, Saturday, March 7, 2015, in Tacoma, Wash. McDaniels had 16 points as Federal Way beat Davis 65-46. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

AP

With Winston Shepard, Angelo Chol and Skylar Spencer all being seniors, adding depth to the front court is a key for San Diego State in the 2016 recruiting class. Wednesday night Steve Fisher’s program picked up an important commitment on that front, as three-star power forward Jalen McDaniels verbally committed to San Diego State while hosting them on an in-home visit.

The 6-foot-9 McDaniels announced the news via his Twitter account, and with another forward in Nolan Narain reclassifying to 2015 the Federal Way, Washington product becomes SDSU’s first 2016 commit. Among the other programs to have offered McDaniels, who took an official visit to SDSU in late August, were Arizona State, Boise State and Washington.

As a junior at Federal Way HS, McDaniels helped the team win the Washington Class 4A state title with Washington State signee Viont’e Daniels also a member of that roster. McDaniels played for the Seattle Rotary grassroots program this past spring/summer.

While McDaniels is slight of build, his length and athleticism make him a good fit for San Diego State. The Aztecs have had success with this mold of player under Fisher, and will look to continue that with McDaniels when he arrives on campus in 2016. At that time he’ll join the likes of Narain (who’s redshirting this season) and redshirt freshman Zylan Cheatham in competing for front court minutes (sophomore Malik Pope is a player some consider capable of making the leap to the NBA after the 2015-16 season).