College drafts are about promise more than the present, about ceilings and upsides and potential, and San Diego FC took that to a new extreme with the No. 1 overall pick in Major League Soccer’s SuperDraft on Friday.

The expansion club selected 19-year-old Manu Duah, a 6-foot-4 freshman defensive midfielder from Ghana who started 14 games for UC Santa Barbara in the recently completed fall season.

Seven UCSB players were named first-team, second-team or honorable mention all-conference in the Big West, and two were on the 11-man all-freshman team. Duah, who had no goals and one assist in 1,152 minutes, wasn’t among them.

“His talent is really high,” SDFC coach Mikey Varas. “He’s a young player. He’s done great in his college career. The next step is seeing how he adapts. We’re not going to limit anybody’s story before we’re out on the pitch together. Ultimately what we have found is it takes a bit of time to adapt from the college game to the pro game, mainly because of how often the training is, how intense the training is.

“What we know for sure is we have a top player in Manu and we’ll have a very individualized plan for him to make sure we get him performing for the team at the right moment with a ton of confidence.”

There is no urgency for that moment to come anytime soon, especially with two veteran defensive midfielders already on SDFC’s roster. One of the club’s first signings was Jeppe Tverskov from Danish sister club FC Nordsjaelland. And the day before the SuperDraft, SDFC added Panamanian free agent Anibal Godoy, a veteran of 10 MLS seasons.

The “6” (defensive midfield) position is typically manned by an older, experienced player, too. Tverskov will be 32 in March. Godoy turns 35 in February.

“I know there are already two big-time 6s there, and I’m ready to learn from them,” said Duah, who was born in Ghana, came to the United States for high school and is the latest in a pipeline of Ghanaian players to UCSB. “But I don’t see this as a long-term thing. I see it as, I’m going to get playing time when I humble myself and learn from those 6s already there. I can add more to my game and then improve and also have playing time.”

Duah is the first UCSB athlete in any sport selected No. 1 in the college draft.

“I never had a dream that I would be the No. 1 pick,” he said. “The job is not done yet. There’s a new chapter. I actually need to focus and work hard on that.”

Duah’s combination of size and skill attracted SDFC. So, no doubt, did his favorable contract as a Generation Adidas player.

Each year, MLS partners with Adidas to identify the top few college underclassmen in the country, giving them three-year deals that count only against a club’s supplemental roster. Most are for less than $100,000; last year’s two Generation Adidas players made $72,000 and $85,000 in their rookie seasons.

All four GA players this year went in the top-15 picks, including three in the top four. The Chicago Fire took Wisconsin freshman forward Dean Boltz at No. 3 and the Colorado Rapids took Cornell sophomore forward Alex Harris at No. 4. Max Floriana, a senior defender from St. Louis University, went second to the San Jose Earthquakes.

SDFC also had the ninth pick Friday but traded down, presumably because the guy they had targeted was no longer available. They ended up at No. 24 instead and took senior defender Ian Pilcher, an all-conference selection from UNC-Charlotte.

Their other picks: Washington defender Harrison Bertos at No. 31, USD junior forward Samy Kanaan at No. 56 and Sacramento State forward Donovan Sessoms at No. 61.

Kanaan, a Rancho Bernardo High School alum, was one of three players selected from local colleges. Toreros sophomore goalkeeper Donovan Parisian went 18th overall to the New England Revolution, and San Diego State sophomore defender Reid Fisher went 23rd to Toronto FC.

Unlike the NBA or NFL drafts, players selected in the MLS SuperDraft have the option of returning to school, usually predicated on whether they’re offered a first-team pro contract.

SDFC Sporting Director Tyler Heaps said he expects only “two or three” players from the SuperDraft to make the first-team roster, given the historically difficult transition from the college to pro game. The rest typically play on a club’s reserve team in the third-division MLS Next Pro league.