The Harden-less era is officially upon the ASU men’s basketball program.

While next season is still seven months away, coach Herb Sendek made another addition to try and fill James Harden’s shoes.

Sendek signed 6-foot-7-inch forward Victor Rudd last week, bringing the total number of recruits for the upcoming season to four.

“We’re excited to have Victor sign with us,” Sendek said in a statement released by the University on Tuesday. “Victor is an outstanding player who possesses great promise and potential. He has tremendous athleticism and versatility, and he will fit into our system very well.”

Rudd started out at Sylmar High (California) before transferring to Van Nuys (California) for his junior year. He eventually ended up at Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev., which featured one of the nation’s elite high school programs.

According to Rivals.com, Rudd was the highest-ranked unsigned power forward for the 2009 class. Rudd is an athletic player who can shoot the 3-pointer and is capable of throwing down some monster dunks — his dunk from the free-throw line on YouTube offers proof.

He’s even earned recognition as one of the top power forwards on the West Coast, despite having a couple of rocky years to close out his high school career.

Rudd played just six games at Van Nuys before being declared ineligible and was also booted off Findlay’s team in March for a disagreement with his coach, according to Rivals.com.

Rudd averaged 16.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during his senior season for a team that featured other top Division-I recruits.

Along with Rudd, Sendek has also signed guards Trent Lockett and Demetrius Walker and 7-footer Ruslan Pateev for the fall.

With Harden and Jeff Pendergraph gone to the NBA, there will be plenty of opportunities for all four freshmen to see the floor next season.

It’s likely that the 2009 recruiting class will have an impact similar to the 2007 class that was highlighted by Harden. While Harden won’t be back next season, Ty Abbott, Jamelle McMillan and Rihards Kuksiks have been at the core of Sendek’s teams since day one.
The juniors-to-be will combine with seniors Derek Glasser, Eric Boateng and Jerren Shipp to make up the nucleus of Sendek’s returning players.

Assuming Glasser, Abbott and Kuksiks retain their posts in the starting lineup and Boateng takes over Pendergraph’s position on the block, there is still one starting spot up for grabs.

While McMillan may have an upper hand because of his experience with Sendek’s offense, it appears he will be pushed hard by Lockett, Walker and Rudd immediately.

Sendek likes to employ three wing players to go along with Glasser on the perimeter, and all four of the aforementioned players can fill the role.

Reach the reporter at alex.espinoza@asu.edu.