Steve Stitzer, the coach at the Hogan Prep Academy in Kansas City, had a front row seat for the recruitment of 6-foot-5 wing Broderick Newbill, who signed a national letter of intent on Wednesday with Fresno State. Stitzer watched a lot of schools come and go. But one thing that sticks out through the process was seeing Bulldogs assistant Byron Jones so far from home.

''The coach that recruited him, he followed him a lot and watched a lot of games, went all the way up to North Missouri to watch him play,'' Stitzer said.

''It was just kind of unbelievable to see Fresno State up there in St. Jo, Missouri, but that's what happens. He did a good job. He got Broderick ... and he came a long way, he came a really long way.''

The spring signing period ended on Wednesday, though schools still can and will add players. And, as expected, the usuals are at the top of the recruiting rankings -- Kentucky, UCLA, Arizona, Baylor, North Carolina State, Texas, Michigan State and Kansas all had highly-ranked recruiting classes.

Mid-major programs don't often crack that group. But there is no question that Rodney Terry and his staff at Fresno State improved the talent level in the Bulldogs program, said Josh Gershon, a West Coast recruiting analyst for Scout.com.

Gershon, based on the West Coast, didn't evaluate every player in the Bulldogs' class -- point guard Aaron Anderson is from Edmond, Okla., wing Broderick Newbill from the Hogan Prep Academy in Kansas City. But the California recruits in the Fresno State class make an immediate impression.

''Marvelle Harris is one of my favorite players on the West Coast,'' Gershon said of the guard from Eisenhower High in Rialto, who signed a national letter of intent at the start of the spring period.

''He is a player who didn't really play AAU and is a little further out from L.A., so a lot of coaches didn't really get a chance to see him, and you couple that with the fact that he played football, was a football prospect first, he completely went under the radar. But we saw him in December at a tournament in Santa Monica and it was very clear that he was one of the top guys available on the West Coast at his position and Fresno State, credit that coaching staff for getting in there first and evaluating him and realizing just how good he was.

''He has a terrific pull-up jumper, he's a big-time scorer, he's competitive and has a good athletic frame at 6-3, 6-4. He really plays hard and has a winning competitive mentality. I think he's a guy that should eventually be a pretty good scorer in the Mountain West. It's really a steal for Fresno State because if more coaches saw him, he would have ended up in the Pac-12, I think. But Fresno State got in there first and secured him before anyone else had a chance to figure out how good he was.''

Fresno State coach Rodney Terry has added another versatile player to the Bulldogs' recruiting class, signing 6-foot-5 wing Broderick Newbill to a national letter of intent this morning.

Newbill led Hogan Prep Academy in Kansas City to a Class 3 state championship as a junior and had the Rams in the title game again this season, losing to Charleston High. He had a scholarship offer from Nebraska and this month made official visits to Fresno State, Southern Illinois and Tulsa.

Newbill's father, William, confirmed that the letter had been signed and said they would be sending it back to Fresno State tonight.

Terry is not allowed under NCAA rules to comment on recruits until after the signed letter of intent has been received and been through the athletic department's compliance office. But the Bulldogs' recruiting class, which took a significant jump when Memorial High center Robert Upshaw signed last month, has another important piece heading into the Mountain West Conference.

The class also includes point guard Aaron Anderson from Santa Fe High in Edmond, Okla.; forward Braeden Anderson from Okotoks, Alberta, Canada; guard Marvelle Harris from Eisenhower High in Rialto; and center/forward Tanner Giddings from Windsor.

Fresno State has not finalized its basketball schedule for 2012-13, but the Bulldogs will open the season at Texas and have a game against UCLA at a newly-renovated Pauley Pavilion.

But when completed, Coach Rodney Terry said it will be another challenging non-conference schedule, which is the way he wants it heading into the Mountain West Conference.

''It gives you a level. In your non-conference schedule, you're preparing yourself for conference play. You want to play athletic teams with size, because we're going to see,'' Terry said.

''We're playing in the best conference on the West Coast. The talent level, we're going to see pros night in and night out, so we have to prepare ourselves for that level of competition and I think what we've done to this point will definitely prepare us for the athleticism that we're going to see and the size that we're going to see.''

One significant difference between this season and last will be the amount of travel the Bulldogs do early in the season. The game at Texas, obviously, is a haul. But it won't be like last year when they played games at North Dakota State, at Boise State, at Oregon, at Colorado and in the NIT Preseason Tipoff at Fort Collins, Colo.

''We really want to play a very competitive schedule, one that doesn't take us crazily all around the country like last year,'' Terry said. ''We were kind of all over the place. We had to do that for a number of different reasons in terms of the time (to put together the schedule) and we just didn't have the luxury of sitting back and deciding where we wanted to go and where we wanted to be.

''This year we got a chance to be more on the West Coast and be closer to home and have more home games and not be strangers in the Save Mart Center.''

Givon Crump, a 6-foot-7 forward who spent a redshirt season at Fresno State and left after former coach Steve Cleveland was fired, will continue his college career at Cal State Fullerton.

Crump is one of three players that signed with the Titans on Monday, along with guard Michael Williams, a transfer from San Francisco, and guard Chris Carvin from American River College.

Crump, who started his career at Baylor, spent last season at Pasadena City College where he averaged 20.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.

Fresno State last season played road games at Oregon, Colorado and Arizona State, played at Stanford in the NIT Preseason Tipoff, and played a fifth Pac-12 team in Utah. The Bulldogs played a non-conference schedule that was a bit ambitious for where they were as a program in their first season under Coach Rodney Terry.

And with games in 2012-13 at Texas and at UCLA - an even bigger step up - it's clear the Bulldogs are going to keep challenging themselves on the court as they merge into the Mountain West Conference.

Memorial High center Robert Upshaw, who on Sunday signed a national letter of intent with Fresno State, said that he would have it no other way.

''It's very exciting. For that to happen for Fresno State, it's awesome,'' Upshaw said. ''That makes you want to get in the gym because UCLA and Texas are high-caliber teams, high-caliber NCAA teams with history and it makes you want to get in the gym and work harder and be better than the Josh Smith's and the Myck Kabongo's that are in the gym.

''It makes you want to play harder and succeed, so that when you step on that court, when you beat that team or you come close it's, 'Hey, they're really rebuilding themselves.' You're showing a lot of courage, a lot of strength. You're showing that Coach Terry is here for the better and not for the worse.''

The Bruins' Smith will be a fascinating early-season challenge for Upshaw.

The 6-foot-10 Smith has had difficulty staying on the court at UCLA because of weight and conditioning issues, but he has vowed to get into shape this offseason. He played only 17.2 minutes per game as a sophomore last year for Coach Ben Howland, but when so inclined is a load around the basket and hit 57.4 percent of his shots.

Memorial High center Robert Upshaw finalized his college recruitment on Sunday, signing a national letter of intent with Fresno State.

After making a commitment to Kansas State in November only to see Coach Frank Martin leave for South Carolina, Upshaw said it was a long-standing relationship with Bulldogs' Coach Rodney Terry that got him to stay at home.

Terry had met Upshaw four years ago, when he was at Texas.

''I sat down and really thought about it and I felt like me and Coach Terry's relationship the past four years has been something has been building,'' Upshaw said. ''I felt I had three years to make a decision to go to Kansas State and now that I only had a certain amount of time to make another one, I felt like I had to look at everything - relationships, knowing people. I didn't want to go to a school where I just barely met the coach.

''The real thing about it is I've had a relationship with Coach Terry that been lasting for the past four years and that's what really turned me on and I feel like I can make this program better as a player, as an individual. I feel also the team can take it to a farther level and just work hard at it every day.''

Here he is signing his letter of intent, parents at his side ...

The 6 p.m. Fresno State update - Marvelle Harris, the shooting guard from Eisenhower High in Rialto, just signed his national letter of intent with the Bulldogs ...

''I can't wait to get up there,'' he said.

Destini Price, a 6-foot forward from Antelope Valley High, said on Tuesday morning that she still had not been able to talk to new Fresno State women's basketball coach Raegan Pebley but that she is looking forward to joining the Bulldogs' program.

Pebley, Price said, had left a message over the weekend, but they had yet to connect.

Price signed a national letter of intent with Fresno State and former coach Adrian Wiggins in November during the early signing period.

When Rodney Terry was hired at Fresno State, the Bulldogs' basketball coach had a lot of roster spots to fill and a very little time to do it.

None of the three players he added in the spring signing period last year worked out - center Daquan Brown transferred to Providence without playing in a single game, guard Larry McGaughey was declared academically ineligible and guard Julius Bilbrew ran into issues with the NCAA clearinghouse.

Terry and the Bulldogs ended up playing with a very short roster last season.

But Raegan Pebley, the Bulldogs' new women's coach, won't have that to deal with that.

Fresno State loses only two players from a 28-6 team - Blakely Goldberg and Veronica Wilson. And former coach Adrian Wiggins had signed two players to national letters of intent in November during the early signing period in 6-foot center Toni Smith from Del City, Okla., and 6-foot forward Destini Price from Lancaster Antelope Valley High.

''Definitely that's nice,'' Pebley said. ''But Adrian and Brett (Frank), Amy (Parrish) and Sadiaa (Jones), they did a great job. They were always somebody that we often came up against in recruiting. I knew they were getting two pretty good ones.''

Smith, who last week was selected as all-state by the Oklahoma Coaches Association, said she spoke briefly with Pebley on Saturday and never considered asking for a release from her letter of intent even though Wiggins' departure came as a surprise.

''It was. It really was. I was like, 'Wow, what happened? What's going on?' '' she said. ''But he told me he had a better opportunity and that he had to take it and I respect the choice he made. It would be better if he was there, but I'm still looking forward to going to Fresno State.

''I didn't think about going to another place. I like Fresno. I don't want to go to any other college. It was going to be new for me anyway - I'm from Oklahoma. I'm ready to see what it offers me.''

Rather than scrambling to sign players during a spring period that starts on Wednesday, Pebley and her staff can get to work on recruiting a 2013 class.

A NCAA evaluation period starts later this month.