Loyola Marymount lands Serra's White

"I wanted to wait, but when I went on my official visit to LMU, I had a very good time," White said. "I fit in with the players and I really liked the coaching staff. This is their first year on the job and I was one of their first recruits so I felt I was going to a really good situation."

Other schools recruiting White included Wyoming, Fresno State, Cal State Fullerton, San Jose State, University of San Francisco, Saint Mary's, Santa Barbara, Pepperdine, Valparaiso and Cal Poly.

White was one of the main forces behind Serra's run to the state championship game last season. The Padres won the Norcal Division I championship, before losing in the finals to Westchester, 66-45, the No. 2 ranked team in the country at the time, according to the USA Today.

During the summer, White's stock increased in the eyes of many college recruiters while playing for the Bay Area Hoosiers club team. With the Hoosiers, White played in tournaments all over the country, showcasing his skills, which intrigued the LMU coaching staff.

"Decensae is going into a situation where he can come in and play right away," said Hoosiers coach Rob Jones. "For the style of play that LMU will play, they have gotten themselves a steal in Decensae."

White is a workhorse of a player, who is very active around the basket. He has improved every year in high school according to Serra coach Chuck Rapp, who said White was the team's MVP during its playoff run last year and he expects big things from him this year.

"He has improved leaps and bounds. He started off as a freshman playing freshman basketball, but you knew that he had the potential and the makeup to become a big-time player," Rapp said. "As a sophomore he played varsity, played behind John Moe, but he was a part-time starter. As a junior (last season), his game developed further. He was a concrete starter and he was second in the league in scoring. He went from being a part-time starter to solidifying his place in the program and the league."

In choosing Loyola Marymount, Jones believes that White has the chance to be an impact player in the West Coast Conference. While he is a traditional small forward, Jones believes that White will have the opportunity down the road to play in the backcourt as a guard at LMU.

"They want him to grab boards and push the ball," Jones said. "Decensae felt really good about (coach) Rodney Tention and the situation at the school."

Tention, a former University of San Francisco player in the mid 1980s, was named LMU's head coach this past summer. Tention spent six seasons at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont from 1991 to 1997, first as an assistant and then as head coach. Tention has spent the last eight seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Arizona under legendary head coach Lute Olsen. Tention's background with recruiting and helping to develop guards and forwards at Arizona was very intriguing to White. As part of NCAA regulations, college coaches are not allowed to comment on recruits until they officially sign a letter-of-intent. The earliest that can happen is November.

"With coach Tention coaching at Arizona, he has coached players that have excelled," White said. "With Loyola hiring coach Tention it seems as if the school is going in the right direction."

White also considered playing for another former Arizona assistant, University of San Francisco coach Jesse Evans, but White wanted to get out of the Bay Area.

"I liked USF, but I live 20 minutes from USF and I did not want to stay in San Francisco," White said. "I don't think there is no downside to my decision. LMU is in Los Angeles and I have a lot of family down there. It is program on the rise that I will be big part of."