June 29, 2015
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State head coach Steve Fisher announced today the addition of Max Hoetzel to the program. The Calabasas native comes to Montezuma Mesa after spending his true freshman campaign at Indiana and will redshirt at SDSU in 2015-16. He will be a sophomore for the 2016-17 season.
"Max is a young man that we know a great deal about," Fisher said. "We recruited him out of high school. He wound up going from a high school to a prep school to Indiana, so we followed his progress. We're getting a very cerebral, athletic wing, who is versatile. He's a very good perimeter shooter and he will be a wonderful addition both for the basketball program and for the University academically."
The 6-8, 220-pound forward played in 31 games for a Hoosiers squad that earned an NCAA tournament berth and finished with a 20-14 record in 2014-15. Hoetzel averaged 2.4 points and 1.3 rebounds in 7.7 minutes. From the floor, he connected on 42.9 percent of his field-goal attempts, including 34.5 percent from behind the three-point arc.
Hoetzel, who logged double-digit minutes on 11 different occasions, enjoyed career highs of 19 points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes of action against Mississippi Valley State. He had a career-best two assists against vs. Savannah State and Georgetown.
Ahead of the regular season at Indiana, Hoetzel joined the Hoosiers for their summer trip to Canada. He played in all five games, earned the starting nod once, and averaged 5.6 points and 3.0 rebounds.
Prior to arriving in Bloomington, Indiana, Hoetzel played his final prep season at Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Massachusetts where he averaged 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Before transferring to Wilbraham & Monson, he played at Calabasas High School where he guided the Coyotes to a CIF Southern Section championship. Hoetzel, who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Germany, also made the German U-18 national team in the summer of 2013.
Hoetzel joins an Aztec program that is fresh off their sixth straight NCAA tournament berth. The two-time defending Mountain West regular-season champions are one of eight schools nationally to have reached the NCAAs six years in a row and one of nine programs in America to reach the Round of 32 three straight seasons. Overall, San Diego State finished 2014-15 with a 27-9 record (14-4 MW), its 10th consecutive 20-win campaign and seventh straight with at least 23 victories.