SDSU’s Cheatham out with broken foot

San Diego State fans may indeed get to see star recruit Zylan Cheatham play this season. They’ll just have to wait.

Coach Steve Fisher said Wednesday that the 6-foot-8 freshman forward has a broken bone in his left foot from an injury sustained earlier this summer and it could be “three to four months before he’s able to play.” Fisher said he expects Cheatham to have surgery soon, followed by six to eight weeks immobilized in a cast or boot, followed by another six to eight weeks of rehabilitation.

“I was told the worst thing you can do is not do the surgery,” Fisher said. “So we’re going to do the surgery, put a screw in and the screw will stay in. The second worst thing is to try to come back too quickly. So we’ll just see.”

It means the athletic four-star prospect from South Mountain High in Phoenix likely will miss the season’s opening few weeks, when the Aztecs play six of their toughest games, including the Maui Invitational during Thanksgiving week. Fisher said it is premature to consider a medical redshirt for the 2014-15 season.

“When things get tough, you learn a lot about yourself,” Cheatham tweeted Wednesday. “Put God first and control what you can control.”

Cheatham becomes the second member of SDSU’s celebrated recruiting class unable to participate in workouts now that the fall semester has started. Malik Pope, a five-star forward, has been on campus since the second session of summer school but is still only allowed to shoot on the side while he continues rehab of his left leg, which he broke twice in high school.

“Malik is rehabbing very aggressively,” Fisher said. “We’re being ultra-cautious with him. He has not done anything other than shoot. I have no timetable for him. We’ll just inch him along a little more.”

Cheatham just recently arrived on campus, unable to join his freshmen teammates for summer school while he finished a final high school class to gain NCAA eligibility. Cheatham had his junior year of coursework wiped out when the NCAA academic clearinghouse refused to accept his transcript from Westwind Prep, forcing him to essentially complete his junior and senior years in one.

And that inability to get on campus and under SDSU’s medical supervision might have cost him the first month or two of his freshman season.

Cheatham initially injured the foot June 30, tweeting a picture of it with an ice wrap and the message: “Pray for the kid.”

Fisher said Cheatham saw a physical therapist and “didn’t think it was anything other than he sprained his foot.” When Cheatham showed up with a slight limp, the SDSU medical staff immediately sent him for X-rays, which revealed what Fisher called a “Jones fracture of the fifth metatarsal” – the base of the pinky toe.

What makes Jones fractures tricky, doctors say, is that patients don’t always realize they have a break and that the bone is slow to heal without surgery because it is in an area with poor blood supply.

The good news for Fisher is that this is among his deepest and most versatile rosters.

“All those freshmen come in touted and wanting to play,” Fisher said. “Zylan brings an athleticism that’s second to none, that’s hard to teach. We’ll see what it means. It will mean, especially early, opportunities will be there for others. We’ve got enough good players that will be able to perform, and we’ll still have enough versatility where we can mix and match, so we’ll be OK there.”

Recruiting update

Rex Pflueger, a four-star guard from Santa Ana Mater Dei High, is down to his final two, according to several recruiting insiders: SDSU and Notre Dame. Pflueger is expected to take his recruiting visit to Montezuma Mesa this weekend and Notre Dame the following weekend.

Also coming this weekend, in what is more of a formality at this point, is Jeremy Hemsley. The four-star guard from Damien High in LaVerne orally committed to the Aztecs in May.

The Aztecs’ other commit from the class of 2015, 6-9 post Brodricks “Buddah” Jones, was elevated from a three-star to four-star prospect after a stellar summer in the latest ratings by Rivals.com, at 99th overall. (He’s scheduled for his official on-campus visit next weekend.) Hemsley rose from 77th to 72nd.

Spurs sign Josh Davis

Josh Davis looks a little like fellow SDSU alum Kawhi Leonard, and now they’ll be playing alongside one another – at least during NBA training camp. According to multiple reports, the Spurs signed the 6-8 Davis to a training camp contract, which provides no guarantees beyond that. Davis averaged 8.9 points and 10.1 rebounds (fifth highest in the league) during the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League playing for his hometown Charlotte Hornets.