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Dylan Darling, SBLive's 2022 state player of the year, commits to Washington State basketball

The Central Valley guard de-commits from Idaho State after 'dream school' Washington State offered on the heels of a dominant senior high school season.

The call came within days of Central Valley's season-ending loss to Kamiakin in the Tacoma Dome in the first round of the WIAA Class 4A state tournament.

It was from Derrick Wrobel, the recruiting coordinator for Washington State's men's basketball program. He'd witnessed Central Valley senior point guard Dylan Darling will his Bears into the state tournament through a thorny path of loser-out games and intrastate travel, delivering one behemoth performance after another.

He called to tell Darling, a legacy Cougar and SBLive's 2022 state player of the year, that the Wazzu coaching staff had seen enough. Washington State was offering Darling a full ride scholarship.

On Thursday, he announced he'd flipped his commitment to the school his father James Darling starred at as a linebacker in the 1990s. In a phone call to the coaching staff, Darling de-committed from Idaho State on Friday.

“I just think it’s an opportunity I couldn’t pass on,” Darling said. “How everything is built over there with their roster, I just feel like with all the bigs being younger, guards being older and just how they play, I just think it fits me well.”

RELATED: Central Valley's Dylan Darling is SBLive's 2021-22 state player of the year

He'd heard from Mountain West and Big Sky schools through his headline-grabbing senior season, in which he scored two 50-plus point games, broke the CV and Greater Spokane League single-game scoring record (58 points) and shattered the league scoring average, previously set by former Gonzaga standout and two-time NBA champion Adam Morrison.

But announcing the WSU offer opened the floodgates for higher-level Division I schools.

"I'd already been hearing from some schools," Darling said, "but Saint Mary's, Stanford, Utah, Minnesota and Long Beach State (started calling) — it was kind of crazy."

He'd already made up his mind that if his dream school came calling, he'd have a hard time saying no.

"Both my parents went there," Darling said. "I have three cousins there now. I used to grow up going to football games. I knew if I liked (the basketball fit), that’s where I’d be.”

Now, he'll get to put on the same crimson and gray-colored uniforms his father did when he was a two-time first team All-Pac 10 Conference pick and a second team All-American linebacker as a senior in 1996, before playing 10 seasons in the NFL.

That was after James Darling was well on his way to becoming one of the most well-known athletes to come out of Stevens County, Washington. He rushed for 1,700 yards as a senior at Kettle Falls High School in 1993.

Dylan Darling similarly etched his name in some record books for his scoring, but it was his court vision, passing ability and unselfishness that impressed opposing coaches.

He averaged 5.8 assists per game on top of his 33.2 points, 8.5 boards and 4.4 steals, and though he took a lot of shots, he scored at an efficient clip, shooting 55 percent from the field.

“I’ve coached against a lot of kids who can score and get 30, 40 points,” Gonzaga Prep coach Matty McIntyre said. “But he knows how to pick his spots, pick the moments and he just makes the right play. Kudos to him, he’s a terrific player.”

Now he's headed to the Power 5 program just down the road.

---Andy Buhler; @AndyBuhler.