James Madison's roster grew, both literally and figuratively, on Thursday with the addition of Georgia Tech transfer center Ebenezer D'Uuna.
The 6-11 native of Ghana played high school basketball in the Atlanta area, playing three seasons at North Carolina State University before transferring to Georgia Tech as a senior. He will come to JMU as a graduate transfer with one season of eligibility remaining.
This is the fourth transfer for the Dukes since new head coach Preston Spradlin was hired last month, adding Morehead State forward Eddie Ricks III, Syracuse guard Justin Taylor and Southern Indiana guard A.J. Smith joined us.
They join freshman high school guard Red Thompson from John Marshall High School in Richmond. Thompson originally signed with JMU in November, but resumed recruiting after former Dukes coach Mark Byington left for Vanderbilt. He immediately recommitted to his Spradilin and its staff.
“We're getting a lot of commitments,” Spradlin said. “Obviously there's a process from them making a verbal commitment to posting on social media to actually being able to talk openly about them to signing the papers. But the good news we were able to get There are some things.”
Dwona missed several weeks with a foot injury late last season and started 18 games for the Yellow Jackets, averaging 1 point and 1.4 rebounds. His best season was as a sophomore at North Carolina State, where he started 27 games and averaged 4.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots.
He joins Jerrell Roberson, a 6-9 rising junior from DeMartha Catholic High School in suburban Washington, as the only true post players currently on the team. Roberson played in 23 games over the past two seasons, averaging 2 points and 1.7 rebounds.
Roberson and fellow rising junior Xavier Brown are the only scholarship players returning from last season's Sun Belt championship team, which beat Wisconsin 32-4 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We connected on a really authentic level,” Spreadlin said of Brown. “So it means a lot that he wants to come back here and have some level of trust in me and my staff and what we're doing. That bodes well for retaining and rebuilding the roster.”
This means that the Duke family has six scholarships remaining. Former Morehead State guard Mark Freeman, who was the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year under Spradlin at Morehead, and Texas high school forward Katen Bristow are known to have visited JMU recently. He is one of the players.
Freeman, a Memphis native, was also reportedly scheduled for a visit with the Memphis Tigers.
According to On3.com, Bristow is a 6-8, three-star prospect from Holiday High School outside Wichita Falls who is an inside-out threat.
