Five-star Daniels to attend IMG Academy

Five-star DeAndre Daniels is headed out of California.

Daniels is going to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., to play next season, Belmont Shore AAU coach Dinos Trigonis said Sunday.

Daniels, rated third at his position and ninth overall in the 2011 class by Rivals.com, previously played at Woodland Hills (Calif.) Taft and there were rumors that he could move into the 2010 class and play in college this season but has decided to attend IMG instead.

The former Texas commit was expected to leave Sunday morning for his new home in Florida, Trigonis said. Daniels, a 6-foot-8, 180-pound prospect, scored 12 points and had four blocks in Saturday's Boost Mobile Elite 24 event in Venice Beach, Calif. He played incredibly well at times during the July circuit.

"He needs to work on his strength and needs to put weight on and he needs to improve his core strength," Trigonis said. "He normally has trouble in traffic where he gets bumped off balance and loses control of the ball.

"He wants to be an impact guy as a freshman and he stands a better chance of doing that a year from now as a freshman rather than right now."

Daniels' recruitment has exploded in recent weeks after his de-commitment from the Longhorns. Texas is still involved to some degree, Trigonis said, and USC, UCLA, Washington, Cal, Kentucky, West Virginia, NC State and "pretty much everybody" is now in the mix.

"It's wide open and spanning coast-to-coast," Trigonis said of Daniels' recruitment. "There are a tremendous number of schools involved."

Daniels and Belmont Shore teammate Christian Garrett, formerly of Westlake Village (Calif.) Oaks Christian, are expected to attend IMG together.