MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine men's basketball team's frontline just got a lot bigger as the Waves have signed 7-foot, 330-pound Jan Maehlen to a national letter-of-intent, head coach Tom Asbury announced today.

Maehlen attends Ironwood Ridge High School in Tucson, Ariz., and will be a freshman for Pepperdine in the 2010-11 season.

"Jan can get the ball and score with his back to the basket," Asbury said. "He's got a good feel for the game. He's a better athlete than his body shows. With the low post offensive production we've had, he could be a featured player. We'll see him come in and play as a freshman. He'll be a big contributor, we just don't know how soon. He's a smart kid and a very serious student, and he fits in well with the other players we've got."

Maehlen bears a certain resemblance to former Santa Clara big man and 2009 West Coast Conference Player of the Year John Bryant, and the Waves' coaching staff hopes that Maehlen's career can have a similar trajectory as he gets into shape.

"We hope it plays out that way," Asbury said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he gets more playing time than John Bryant did early in his career. We hope Jan is as good as we anticipate. His weight, conditioning and diet will be huge. He's a little heavier than he needs to be. He needs to lose about 25 pounds to be effective. We think he'll be at his best around 290 pounds."

Maehlen averaged around 15 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots for Ironwood Ridge as a senior and shot 57% from the field. His best scoring game was 29 points against Tucson High School. He was named to the Arizona Republic's 5A all-state honorable mention squad while also earning all-league and all-region first team honors. The Nighthawks went 22-9, won their league title and made the quarterfinals of Arizona's 5A Division II Tournament.

Maehlen was born in Germany but moved to Indiana with his family at the age of 8, and only after that did he begin playing the game. He attended basketball powerhouse Lawrence North High School of Indianapolis, but because of a glut of Division I prospects on that team, he spent most of his junior season on the junior varsity. Due to his father's job, his family moved to Tucson prior to his senior year.

"Jan's best days are ahead of him," Ironwood Ridge Coach Brian Peabody said. "As he keeps the weight off and gets in better shape, the sky's the limit. Being under Pepperdine's care will do him a world of good. Give him a couple of years at Pepperdine and he'll reach his potential. He's very knowledgeable, very smart, and anything you try to teach him, he picks it up. A lot of big men have trouble with that. He knows the game inside and out and he knows where to be offensively and defensively.

"He was at a really good high school (in Indiana) with nine D-1 guys in front of him and never got thrown the ball. We did exactly the opposite. We played him every minute and threw him the ball inside every time down the floor. He made great strides in a short amount of time. To see him at the beginning of the season to a few months later, you wouldn't have recognized him. He understands the game very well. The only thing holding him back right now is his conditioning."

Maehlen is looking forward to becoming a Wave.

"It's the combination of everything," he said. "The coaches are great. I really liked the players I met. The facilities are nice. From an academic standpoint, it's an amazing place. So it's the combination of everything I wanted that makes this a perfect place for me. I want to be a valuable part of the team. I want to help take this team as far as it can go. I'm going to work as hard as I can to do that."