On Monday, Princeton picked up a verbal commitment from 6'8" 230 lb big man Daniel Edwards, who hails from Highland Park, TX and attends the same high school that Tiger center Chris Young graduated from a decade ago. Edwards chose Princeton over interest from Penn and Bucknell.

Pending admission, Edwards will join guard T.J. Bray in Princeton's 2010 recruiting class.

Yesterday afternoon I spoke with Edwards' high school coach, David Piehler. He shared his thoughts with me about Edwards, both on-and-off the court.

Exclusive quotes and links to articles and evaluations about Edwards can be found after the jump.

As this Rivals video package shows, Daniel Edwards (#32) is primarily an inside threat for the Highland Park Scots, who can step outside and shoot from midrange when the defense sags off.

Heading into his third year on the varsity team, Edwards no longer shares the court with his older twin brothers Pierce and Matthew, who now attend Amherst. "His brothers and he are good young men," Coach Piehler told princetonbasketball.com. "They're very well-rounded young men - respectful and polite. They are good students. They're the type of young men you like coaching and as a dad you would hope your sons would be like them too. The character and the respect and the work ethic and the manners. All those things. He's got it, his brothers have it. When I heard that Princeton was interested in Daniel I thought that would be a great fit for him. He's very cerebral."

"He's good passer and a good ball-handler for as big as he is," Piehler continued. "I think that appealed to the [Princeton] coaches, I know."

"We don't play him at guard, but he can bring the ball up for us sometimes to relieve pressure," said Piehler, who is entering his fourth season as head coach at Highland Park. "He's fundamentally sound enough where he can put it on the floor, he can pass it - and for a guy that big and that tall that's definitely an asset. I could see him in that high post [at Princeton] making the passes, shooting a jumper if they sag off of him."

When asked about where Edwards fits into his team's plans, Piehler remarked "I'd like to play him more outside, but he's hard to stop inside. He's big. He's strong. He's really improved a lot in the last two years. We use him more inside back to the basket, but he has the ability to face the basket and spot up and shoot it, put it on the floor. We'll use him more like that this year, but it is hard to have someone that big and that strong and have him on the perimeter too much of the time. I'd also like to have him inside where he can rebound, bang and score inside," adding that Edwards has put on five or 10 pounds working out this summer.

"[Daniel] is tough match-up for an opposing coach, because if they put a big guy on him he's quick enough that he can take him outside and go by him on the dribble but if they put a smaller guy on him he's obviously strong enough and big enough where he can post him up and score inside," Piehler explained. "I wouldn't want to be an opposing coach. You're going to have to double him from somewhere, and then he's smart enough he'll find an open man and make the pass out of the double team."

Edwards' coach praised the senior's ability to run the floor and mentioned that "He's fairly mild-mannered off the floor, but there are some times during the game or during the course of the season where a fire will be lit underneath him. He's very competitive, even though he comes across as mild-mannered and even-keeled. To me that's one of his biggest assets. He's very intense even though he doesn't come across like a 'rah rah' type person."

When discussing areas of improvement for Edwards, Piehler told me that "[Daniel] has worked a lot on his shooting. I know last year he was in the low 60s at the free throw line. He gets fouled a lot. We talked last spring about improving his percentage by 10 points. He could average four or five more points a game just from the free throw line. I know this summer when we were at team camp at Oklahoma, I watched six games and he did not miss a free throw in six games. You definitely can't do 'Hack-a-Shaq' on him, because he'll make you pay for that."

Piehler also hopes Edwards can start occasionally stepping out behind the three point line. "He's improving on his range," Piehler said. "He didn't take too many threes last year, but I'm not opposed to it this year. It isn't like he has a 'green light,' he has more like a 'light green' light. It's not a total freedom but I have confidence with him. It's not like he spots up and shoots it and I go 'oh no!' He can make those."

"I told Coach Johnson that his biggest problem here is he doesn't have other players in our program here to push him and make him better every day," pronounced Piehler. "He's going to get a lot better competition at Princeton. I think he is going to improve even more so when he gets there because he's going to have guys he's going to have to play against on a daily basis that are just as skilled and just as talented and just as big. I think his best days are ahead of him."

Defensively, the Scots play about 80% man to man according to their coach. "We run a lot of unselfish stuff like Kansas and North Carolina do," revealed Piehler. "We have very balanced scoring. Daniel averaged about 13 ppg last year, he could very well have averaged 20 ppg if we gave him the ball more. We have a more of a system than one individual player."

When Edwards called the Princeton staff to tell them he wanted to be a Tiger, his coach was delighted. "I thought it was a great fit, and when he told me Monday he had committed, I wasn't surprised because I felt that was a great fit for him and a great fit for Princeton as well."

"Out of the schools he was considering, they were all good schools, nothing against Penn or Bucknell or others, but I thought Princeton was a great fit for him," Piehler mentioned. Piehler also said that he could see Edwards projecting as a forward for Coach Johnson's Tigers as opposed to just a back-to-the-basket center.

"He'll be a typical Princeton-type player, if there is such a thing. Very smart, very fundamentally sound, good young man, he's a great fit and I see him having a great career there."

In June, texashoops.com ranked Edwards as the state's 27th-best prospect in the class of 2010.

A more recent texashoops.com list has Edwards 40th, saying he is a "hard-working paint player with good hands and feet and a solid skill level. He catches and finishes quickly around the rim, has a nice face-up 12-15 footer, can pass from the high post and works hard for position on the low block. He runs the floor hard, is a good rebounder in his space and isn’t afraid to get physical and bang at either end. He doesn’t blow you away with flashy athletic plays but uses a steady blue-collar effort with a nice skill set to consistently impact the game."

After averaging 17 points and 13 rebounds over two games, Edwards was named the D/FW Metroplex Hoops Player of the Week in February.

Following his junior year Edwards was selected to the Texas Association of Baksetball Coaches Boys Class 4A All-Region Team and recognized as First Team All-District 10-4A.

The story of Edwards' close-knit family and the tragic murder of his father in 1992 is told in this HS Gametime piece.