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Omari Spellman commits to Villanova

Villanova has landed a commitment from top-20 junior Omari Spellman.

The five-star power forward recently visited the Wildcats' campus with his mother and decided to end his recruitment early.

"Today is my mother's birthday, and it was very important to me that the day I chose to commit was something special, and what could be more special than my mother's birthday?" Spellman told ESPN.com.

"We saw them play Georgetown, and that was an amazing sellout crowd. I had seen the campus a few times, but that was my mom's first time seeing it and after that I knew that was where I wanted to be."

Spellman, a student at The MacDuffie School (Granby, Massachusetts), is ranked No. 17 overall in the ESPN 60 for the class of 2016. He's the No. 4 power forward in the junior class.

He took visits to Villanova and Connecticut for Midnight Madness back in October but also held offers from Arizona, UCLA, Virginia, Memphis, St. John's, Ohio State, Indiana and more. Kentucky was showing interest but never offered.

Spellman is Jay Wright's first commitment for the 2016 class, and he is likely the future replacement for junior center Daniel Ochefu. The Wildcats have several open spots in Spellman's class, and they are expected to make strong pushes for top-30 perimeter prospects Tyus Battle and Rawle Alkins.

RecruitingNation's Adam Finkelstein contributed to this report.