Men’s basketball gained experience with the addition of five transfer athletes and now has many tools to work with for the coming season.
If you take a look at the 2014-2015 Red Storm roster, you will see a lot of players with years of experience under their belts. Recruiting athletes from other schools, especially at the junior college level, has given Dixie State University’s basketball team success this summer, said head coach Jon Judkins.
“The reason we go after transfers is to get help right away,” Judkins said. “We lost five seniors last year and we had to get some guys that could come in a play right away.”
Anthony Morris, a red-shirt sophomore from Mesquite, Nevada, played last season at Snow College. During his time there, he averaged eight points and more than six rebounds a game. He also shot 57 percent from the floor.
The 6-foot-7 inch Morris is joined in the front court by junior forward Mark Ogden. Ogden comes from Grossmont College in California where he averaged nearly 15 points and 10 rebounds a game.
“We are really excited about these guys,” said sophomore guard Robbie Nielson, a business major from Portland, Oregon. “Mark and Anthony, they both add a lot of height to the team, and it will definitely have a positive impact near the basket.”
The Red Storm also gained guards with the signing of junior Collin Woods and senior Connor Van Brocklin.
Van Brocklin played at Salt Lake Community College for two seasons, averaging 15.9 points per game his sophomore season. At the University of Utah, he played in just six games but made both his 3-point attempts last season.
“Van Brocklin is a shooter,” Nielson said. “He works really well on the perimeter, and I think all the transfers will fit in nicely to our system.”
Collin Woods, a 6-foot-2-inch guard, averaged eight points a game at Salt Lake Community College and started 13 of 18 games.
Junior Josh Fuller came from Weber State University where he saw action in 11 games and recorded one double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds). This 2008-2009 Idaho Gatorade player of the year will have to sit out a season since this is not his first transfer. He red-shirted one year at the University of Utah for the 2010-2011 season.
“We try to build the freshmen we get out of high school in to our system,” Judkins said. “The juniors and seniors are the kind of guys that we can get right now and use right away.”
