Long Beach State men’s basketball coach Dan Monson announced the addition of junior forward Dan Jennings for the 2011-12 season last Friday.
Jennings, a 6-foot-8, 260-pound post player, spent the last two seasons at West Virginia University where he played 14 games this past season, averaging 2.1 points and 2.5 rebounds in 8.6 minutes per game.
According to media reports, he left the bench and went to the locker room during the team’s Big East Conference game with South Florida on Jan. 23. It was to be the last game he suited up for as a member of the Mountaineers.
Jennings will have to spend next season as a redshirt before becoming eligible for the 2012-13 season.
“We are very excited to add Dan to our basketball family,” Monson said in a release. “He is very sincere in wanting a fresh start to his basketball career, and with our program losing seven seniors following his year of residence requirement, we feel it is a ‘win-win’ for both Dan and our program.”
Jennings attended West Virginia after a year at St. Thomas More School, the same prep school that current 49er T.J. Robinson attended during the 2007-08 school year. Jennings averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds per game at St. Thomas More and was rated the 60th best prospect, and the 16th best at his position, in the country coming out of high school.
Monson added in a release: “His size, strength and athletic ability coupled with a year of skill development in our program should give him the opportunity to be one of the premier post players a year from now in the Big West. We feel the experience he gained at West Virginia playing in the Big East will be invaluable to us as we continue to strive to elevate our program to a higher level.”
The addition of Jennings brings Long Beach State’s 2010-11 recruiting class to six. Monson signed high school guards Michael Caffey and Shaquille Hunter and junior college guard/forward James Ennis in November.
He added junior college guard/forward Kris Gulley and high school forward Gatete Djuma to the recruiting class earlier this spring. Caffey (Centennial HS/Corona, Calif.) was named to the 2010-2011 CIF-Southern Section Division 1AA Team, while Hunter (Villa Park HS/Villa Park Calif.) was named to the 2010-2011 CIF-Southern Section Division 2AA Team.
Ennis (Ventura College/Ventura, Calif.) earned California Junior College Athletic Association first-team all-state honors after averaging 20.3 points per game, and Gulley (Independence CC/Independence, Kan.) led his team to a 23-9 record while averaging 10.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Djuma (West HS/Salt Lake City, Utah) earned all-region honors after leading his team to a regional championship.
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