SAN DIEGO – Brian Dutcher, San Diego State head men's basketball coach, announced the signing of Oakland, California's Demarshay Johnson Jr., to a National Letter of Intent to compete for the Aztecs beginning in the 2021-22 school year.
"Demarshay is, in the tradition of the Aztecs who have come before him, a long and athletic player," Coach Dutcher said. "He is a young senior (17 years old), who has tremendous potential and I look forward to him joining the program and growing his game."
The 6-10 center will graduate from Salesian College Prep in Richmond, Calif., in 2021. In three seasons competing for the Pride, his teams are a combined 88-10, including 28-0 in Tri-County Athletic League (TCAL) play.
Rated a three-star recruit by 247Sports and Rivals.com, who also rated him as the No. 27 center in the nation, he helped his team to back-to-back TCAL championships and CIF North Coast Section Division III titles in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. He was named an honorable mention All-TCAL performer as a sophomore when Salesian went 10-0 in league play and 31-1 overall.
Last year, Salesian posted a 25-7 record, were TCAL champions with a 10-0 mark, and reached the semifinals of the CIF North Coast Section Open Division playoffs.
In Johnson's time at Salesian, he has appeared in the CIF Championship Tournament three times, reaching the regional semifinals last season. In each of the last three years, Salesian finished the season nationally ranked No. 16 (2017-18), No. 14 (2018-19) and No. 31 (2019-20) according to maxpreps.com.