A day after landing a commitment from a 6-foot-9 forward, San Diego State moved to address its other major need for next season.
Spotted on campus Tuesday was Sean Newman Jr., a 6-foot-1 point guard from Southern California via Louisiana Tech who suddenly has more eligibility because his junior college time no longer counts toward his four allotted Division I seasons.
Newman brings two things the Aztecs covet, one tangible and the other not. He is a true, -first lead guard whose 245 assists at Louisiana Tech last season, or 7.9 per game, ranked third nationally. The only guys ahead of him: Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard and Purdue’s Braden Smith.
What also makes Newman attractive is he’s a kid with a chip on his shoulder and a history of winning, key ingredients in the Aztecs’ recipe for success.
“I have been a late bloomer my whole life,” Newman said in a profile on Louisiana Tech’s athletic website in December. “Looking back, there was no way I was ready to come straight out of high school and play Division I.”
His teams at Fullerton College went 25-4 and 32-1, the latter claiming the state JC title. Louisiana Tech won 22 and 20 games in his two seasons, with upper-tier finishes in Conference USA.
“There are very few Super Bowl champions that won with a bad quarterback,” Bulldogs coach Talvin Hester said in the story. “It is a position that you must start with when you build a team. In basketball, it’s the point guard position.
“When you go to major cities like Los Angeles, a lot of players get lost. When I saw Sean, he made all the right plays. His team functioned at a high rate. He was what made the team go.”
Newman averaged 7.2 points and 5.2 assists in his first year in Ruston, La. He improved to 9.9 and 7.9 last season and was a third team all-conference selection.
He had seven double-figure assist games, including a school-record 20 against an NAIA school from Mississippi. He had 27 points and eight assists against Conference USA champion Liberty, 25 and nine against Grand Canyon, 23 and six against Middle Tennessee — all wins.
The downsides are 3.6 turnovers per 40 minutes and 30.7% career shooting on 3s, but those are mitigated by an ability to play off ball screens and routinely find the open man. He also shot 83.8% from the line last season, which would be a welcome addition for an Aztecs team that ranked 338th nationally at 66.4%.
SDSU, which unexpectedly lost starting point Nick Boyd to the transfer portal, offers something other schools can’t — a chance to return to Southern California. Newman grew up in Los Angeles and attended Culver City High School.
Newman, in his fifth year of college basketball, would instantly make a young Aztecs roster significantly older. On Monday, SDSU got a commitment from sixth-year senior Jeremiah Oden, a versatile forward who spent three years at Wyoming and one at DePaul, then sat out last season at Charlotte after breaking a bone in his foot in October.
That would leave three available scholarships, assuming no one else jumps into the portal before the April 22 deadline. One of those is expected to be used on a second incoming freshman.
That puts the Aztecs in far better shape than their Division I brethren in San Diego.
UCSD and USD have only a shell of their rosters left.
The Tritons lost head coach Eric Olen to New Mexico, where he was formally introduced to a packed news conference Tuesday. The top three players were already out of eligibility: Big West Conference Player of the Year Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, Big West Defensive Player of the Year Hayden Gray and all-conference sharpshooter Tyler McGhie.
Now another starter, forward Nordin Kapic, is in the portal, along with sixth man Justin Rochelin and Serbian forward Milos Vicentic, who played 20 minutes in the season opener against SDSU before suffering a season-ending injury. In all, they’ll need to replace 81% of their scoring.
On Monday, both incoming freshmen recruits bolted as well: Carlsbad High School’s Jake Hall and Uriah Tenette from Prescott, Ariz. Hall is a three-time all-CIF selection who averaged 28.5 points last season, and Tenette had a 54-point game against a five-star prospect.
“After the recent coaching changes at UCSD,” Hall posted on social media Monday night, “I have decided to request a release from my national letter of intent. I want to thank the whole UCSD staff for the opportunity.”
The interesting twist: Hall’s high school coach, Clark Allard, is the brother of Clint Allard, the longtime UCSD assistant who was promoted to replace Olen shortly after New Mexico’s announcement.
Things aren’t much better at USD, where 11 players are in the portal. The good news is the two leading scorers — Kjay Bradley Jr. (14.5 ppg) and Tony Duckett (10.4 ppg) — are not, but Steven Jamerson II (10.0 points, 7.8 rebounds) and five other guys who started at least 10 games are gone.
