{"id":232426,"date":"2025-09-16T23:16:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/232426\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T23:16:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:16:15","slug":"aztecs-are-still-in-the-mix-for-4-top-high-school-prospects-heres-who-they-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/232426\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztecs are still in the mix for 4 top high school prospects. Here’s who they are."},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego State had a single men\u2019s basketball commit during the fall recruiting period last year, and the recent announcement from 6-foot-6 wing Zach White gives the Aztecs one from the high school class of 2026.<\/p>\n

But SDSU\u2019s coaches aren\u2019t done yet, or at least they hope they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s realistic we could take (as many as) three in this class if things break the right way,\u201d coach Brian Dutcher said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an interesting approach in the transfer-heavy NIL era of college sports, pursuing inexperienced commodities instead of proven products, the unknown versus the known. As programs lean into the NCAA transfer portal and annually restock rosters with veterans chasing a payday, some have abandoned high school recruiting altogether.<\/p>\n

Not Dutcher. He remains bullish on prep prospects for several reasons.<\/p>\n

One is that, in his words, \u201cour program is based on our high school kids (and) is how we build culture\u201d with players who stick around for three and four years.<\/p>\n

Two: He\u2019s confident he can keep many of his underclassmen, as the Aztecs did after last season, and doesn\u2019t want to stunt their growth by creating a logjam for minutes from a glut of older transfers.<\/p>\n

Three: There is tantalizing value in a market with suddenly more supply than demand.<\/p>\n

Five high school seniors have taken official campus visits to SDSU over the past month, all of them consensus four-star prospects who are being pursued by some of the nation\u2019s most storied programs. White, the son of all-American Cal running back Russell White, verbally committed to the Aztecs last week.<\/a><\/p>\n

The wait now begins on the other four, who remain in play so much that Dutcher and his staff spend off days between practices driving or flying to see them..They could land one more, two more or no more.<\/p>\n

A closer look at the four:<\/p>\n

Anthony Felesi<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-6 wing from Utah Prep is ranked No. 49 nationally by 247Sports.com. He announced last month that he will visit five schools \u2014 Pitt, SDSU, USC, UCLA and Louisville \u2014 but is also linked to Gonzaga.<\/p>\n

His stock figures to keep rising this season, now that he\u2019s out of the shadow of high school teammate AJ Dybantsa. Dybantsa, the No. 1-ranked recruit from the class of 2025, is headed to BYU for an NIL package reportedly approaching $7 million.<\/p>\n

An excerpt from ESPN\u2019s scouting report on Felesi reads: \u201cHis high-level athleticism makes him a dynamic presence on both ends of the floor, allowing him to finish above the rim, guard multiple positions and make momentum-shifting plays in transition. \u2026 Whether creating offense for himself or facilitating for others, his blend of athletic tools and improving skill set makes him a two-way threat with room to grow into an even more complete player.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Burbank'sBurbank\u2019s Nicholas Niazi is sandwiched between Pasadena\u2019s Josh Irving, left, and DeMille Brown II during a boys basketball game at Maranatha High School in Pasadena on Friday, Jan. 23, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)
\nJosh Irving<\/p>\n

The 6-11 center from Pasadena High School is also highly sought after, reducing his list of finalists to seven: Kentucky, Kansas, Louisville, Texas A&M, USC, SMU and SDSU. Like Felesi, he has visits scheduled through next month and isn\u2019t expected to announce a decision until late October or early November.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a prototypical Aztecs big man: a long, athletic rim protector who is agile enough to switch the 1-5 ball screen. He\u2019s doesn\u2019t turn 18 until May, just one reason why coaches are drooling at his ceiling.<\/p>\n

Another potential plus for the Aztecs: He\u2019s trained by Clint Parks and represented by Harrison Gaines, who have had multiple players play for Steve Fisher and Dutcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cSDSU has shown they\u2019re all in because they sent four coaches out on the first day of coaches being able to see players,\u201d Irving told Stockrisers.com after his visit in late August. \u201cI love how they are local and not that far of a drive for me, and the area and the school are amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josiah Johnson<\/p>\n

The 6-4 point guard from Mayfair High School outside Los Angeles is the revelation of the summer recruiting circuit, going from unheralded and unranked to a solid four-star prospect that attracted the attention of SDSU and UCLA.<\/p>\n

He has remained loyal to the local schools that recruited him first and has visited or will visit places like Long Beach State (where both his parents attended), UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and Cal Baptist. He came to SDSU in late August and is scheduled to visit UCLA on Sept 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were telling me how I could fit with their system,\u201d Johnson said of the Aztecs. \u201cThey are heavily defensive-oriented. I could tell that from their practices. Their guys were practicing hard, and there was a lot of intensity and competition with everybody. I felt it, and it felt like something I could fit in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EliasElias Obenyah #3 of Salesian College Prep rebounds against Harvard-Westlake in the second half of a CIF State Division Open Division boys basketball championship game at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on Saturday, March 9, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News\/ SCNG)
\nElias Obenyah<\/p>\n

The 6-4 guard plays for Salesian College Prep in the Bay Area, the alma mater of former Aztecs forward Demarshay Johnson Jr.<\/p>\n

Cal and Saint Mary\u2019s are in the mix, but Obenyah is expected to choose between SDSU and Stanford.<\/p>\n

Obenyah fits the Aztecs\u2019 preference for guards and wings with positional size, allowing them to switch screens with ease and cover bigs in a pinch. So does his intensity and gym-rat work ethic. He can play on or off the ball, giving him offensive versatility as well.<\/p>\n

He grew up in Ukiah but attended Salesian, located two hours south in Richmond, for the academics and athletics. A solid summer on the club circuit elevated him from a three- to four-star prospect.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: September 16, 2025 at 4:05 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego State had a single men\u2019s basketball commit during the fall recruiting period last year, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":232427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1369,3549,7264,18257,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-232426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115216527298724166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}