April 11, 2012
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State signed nationally heralded recruit Winston Shepard to a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday, the first day of the spring signing period, Aztec men's basketball head coach Steve Fisher announced.
Shepard inks with SDSU out of Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev. The 6-8, 205-pound forward helped lead the Pilots to a 32-1 record this past season as Findlay Prep finished the campaign ranked No. 2 by USA Today and second in the POWERADE FAB 50 poll. Shepard also guided the Pilots to the ESPNHS National High School Invitational title, Findlay Prep's third championship in the last four years.
Shepard will head to Montezuma Mesa in time for 2012-13 campaign as one of the top players in the nation. Rivals.com has pegged him a five-star recruit, while ESPN.com and Scout.com gave him four stars. Shepard is also rated No. 21 on The Rivals 150 and No. 53 on the ESPNU 100.
At Shepard's position, meanwhile, he is ranked as the 10th-best small forward by Rivals and is considered the 14th-best at the position by ESPN. Scout has Shepard ranked as the No. 9 power forward in the country.
Shepard is a part of an incoming that class that includes highly touted signees Matt Shrigley and Skylar Spencer and Division I transfers James Johnson (Virginia), JJ O'Brien (Utah) and Dwayne Polee II (St. John's). O'Brien and Polee II will be eligible at the start of the 2012-13 campaign, while Johnson will be eligible at mid-year.
Shepard and the rest of the incoming class joins an Aztec squad that is slated to return four starters and its top four scorers from last season's NCAA Tournament squad that shared Mountain West regular-season championship and finished with a 26-8 record, its fourth consecutive season with at least 25 wins.