With reshirt junior forward Matt Shrigley possibly out for the season with an ACL injury, SDSU landed San Marcos High alum Ben Perez Friday.
After attending Air Force and leading the school’s prep team in scoring his first season, he returned home and played on the AAU circuit.
Perez, 6-4, is a perimeter sharpshooter, similar to the position that Shrigley had on the roster, and something that the team lacked last season.
He had scholarships to several Division I schools, but chose to go to SDSU as a recruited walk-on.
“When the coaches laid out the situation and the track record they have with walk-ons and the chance I’d have this year, I felt it was the best opportunity for me,” Perez said per The San Diego Union Tribune. “They wrote down the whole depth chart and broke it down for me. They said: “There are really only one or two players at your position.’”
In the report, Perez noted that he believes this is an ideal year to walk-on.
Considering the team’s shooting troubles, Perez may have a chance to collect decent minutes towards the middle and end of the season.
At San Marcos High, he was all-CIF first team and led his team in scoring at 10.6 points per-game in his senior year.
It will be a homecoming for Perez who has been watching the Aztecs play since he was a kid.
“I’ve been going to games at Viejas Arena since I was pretty little,” he said per the San Diego Union Tribune, “and I’ve seen how big-time the program has become and how crazy the fans are. It will be a dream come true for me.”