Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Three-star power forward commits to Long Beach State

Dan Monson

Long Beach State head coach Dan Monson shouts to his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against 2namNorth Carolina State in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013. NC State won 76-66. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)

AP

Long Beach State head coach Dan Monson will have nine seniors on his roster this season, eight of whom are eligible to play with Maryland transfer Nick Faust having to sit a year per NCAA transfer rules. Among those seniors are four front court players, and in their 2015 recruiting Long Beach State has looked to account for those departures.

Thursday evening the Big West program received a third front court commitment in the class, as 6-foot-8 power forward Mason Riggins announced via his Twitter account that he’s decided to attend Long Beach State next season.

Riggins joins Johnathon Ross and LaRond Williams as players who have verbally committed to Long Beach State, with all three being at least 6-foot-7. Riggins is from Whitewright, Texas, and as a junior he was named Class 2A All-Region by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches. Riggins (who also competed in track and field, putting the shot) is good on the boards, an area where the 49ers can use help given the personnel losses they’ll need to account for at the end of the 2014-15 season.

Long Beach State returns five of their top six scorers from a season ago in 2014-15, with leading rebounder Dan Jennings being the lone departure. However four of those five players, which includes guards Michael Caffey and Tyler Lamb, are in the final year of eligibility as is FGCU grad transfer Eric McKnight. The lone exception is sophomore guard/forward Travis Hammonds, who grabbed 3.0 rebounds per contest as a freshman.

Riggins, Ross and Williams will join a front court that will include Hammonds, USC transfer Roschon Prince and freshmen Jack Williams and Temidayo Yussuf in 2015.

Follow @raphiellej