Matt Mitchell Jr

---

An under-recruited, late-blooming, athletic, 6-foot-6, 225-pound wing who played at Martin Luther King High in Riverside. Sound familiar?

No one is saying Matt Mitchell Jr. is the next Kawhi Leonard, but you can draw several parallels, including San Diego State’s interest in him that culminates in his official recruiting visit Friday. Even if he wasn’t roughly the same size as Leonard and didn’t begin his prep career at the same school, Mitchell represents the kind of player with whom the Aztecs built their basketball program – underrated, underappreciated, under the radar.

So who is Matt Mitchell Jr.?

He attended King High before transferring to Roosevelt High in Eastvale (just north of Corona), where he won a Division I state title last March. His teammate was Jemarl Baker, a sharpshooting guard who initially signed with Cal, was released from his letter of intent when Bears coach Cuonzo Martin left for Missouri and now is headed for Kentucky.

Most top players are recruited based on their junior seasons in high school and the following summer with their club teams, and Mitchell was a two- or three-star prospect (depending on the service) who took visits to Cal Baptist, Fordham and Cal State Fullerton. He chose Fullerton and signed a letter of intent last November.

Then his senior season started. Mitchell averaged 25.5 points and 9.5 rebounds on one of the state’s top teams, making 41 percent of his 3-point attempts and 89 percent of his free throws. In five games against rival Corona Centennial, he had 28, 31, 31, 29 and 35 points. Mitchell, not the Kentucky-bound Baker, was named the Riverside Press-Enterprise player of the year.

"He’s always played with a chip on his shoulder,” said Matt Mitchell Sr., his father who was a 6-7 forward for Div. II Cal Poly Pomona in the early 1990s. “He’s always been that kid who wanted to prove people wrong. This year, he played with two chips on his shoulder.”

In the spring, Mitchell asked for (and received) his release from Fullerton, reasoning that “I felt it wasn’t the right decision for me to stay there.” Mitchell has since received interest from schools like Gonzaga, North Carolina State, Connecticut and West Virginia, but with only two of five allotted official visits remaining he opted to use them on Utah two weeks ago and now SDSU.

Some schools simply didn’t have scholarships available this late. Others may have been deterred because he hasn’t met NCAA academic requirements, and there was some talk that he might attend a post-graduate prep school next year instead. (Mitchell is currently taking online classes and awaiting an SAT score but says he expects to be eligible for 2017-18.)

Either way, SDSU has the last recruiting visit for what might be the steal of the offseason.

---