Roster Turnover (Part 2)

So, in the first installment of this 2 part post, we looked at last year's roster and what had changed in the off season. Now lets look at the new 2013-2014 roster and talk about the additions. I am only listing scholarship players to avoid any confusion.

Drew Parker - G - Sr
Nicholas Paulo - G/F - Jr
Kyle Cain - F/C - Jr*
Modestas Masiulionis - G/F - Jr
Kayel Locke - F - So
Jordan Potts - G - So
RJ White - C - Fr*
Clay Byrd - G - Fr
Tyrone Outlaw - G/F - Fr
Tevon Saddler - G - Fr
Allen Baez - G - Fr
Jordy Kuiper - F/C - Fr
Diante Baldwin - G - Fr

For the record, 6 UNCG players have never played college basketball. 7 have never played D1 basketball and 8 have never played in a UNCG uniform. So, calling this team young or inexperienced is a giant understatement. Let's meet the new guys.

Additions
- We've already devoted entries to new Spartans Cain, Byrd, Outlaw, Saddler and Baldwin. Cain redshirted this past season after transferring over from Arizona State. Byrd, Outlaw and Saddler all signed their NLI's back in the fall. Baldwin signed his NLI this spring. Here is the athletics department's media release about his signing.

- Along with Baldwin, European big man Jordy Kuiper (6'9" 238 lbs/Groningen, Netherlands) signed a NLI in the spring. Kuiper played at the Canarias Basketbal Academy in Spain. He averaged 16 pts and 9 rebounds per game last season. This past February, Jordy ranked as the 9th best international player at the National Prep School Invitational. Also, Jordy is an ambassador for the Bas van de Goor Foundation, whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for people with diabetes through exercise and sport.



- In early May, Adam Zagoria's blog reported PG Allen Baez (6'2" 167lbs/Miami, FL) committed to UNCG after a visit. Baez had a lot of interest from high major programs like Rutgers, Washington and Oregon State. However, it appears most programs expected him to go to prep school and didn't offer him a scholarship. Baez played for Puerto Rico in the FIBA Americas U18 tournament in 2012. Playing against some more well known high schoolers, Baez averaged 6.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. His 4.0 assists per game in the tournament ranked 3rd best. He was selected to play in the South Florida TOC game, featuring some of the best players from public and private schools is Dade and Broward counties. Highlights of the entire game can be seen here. Baez was named 2nd team all-Dade County.



- When UNCG put out its roster for the 2013-2014 season, the most interesting name to appear on it was JUCO transfer Modestas Masiulionis (6'4" 191 lbs/Orland Park, IL). His name was interesting because no one had reported anything about Modestas coming to UNCG. In fact, he had been listed as committed to Chicago State by several websites. Modestas helped Moraine Valley CC get to the NJCAA Division II national tournament. This past season he ranked second in all of Division II in 3 point percentage at 52% (66-127). He averaged 12.9 points in 30 games. He was 2011-2012 first team All-Skyway Conference selection.



UNCG gets to play 5 games in an overseas trip coming up in early August (I'll talk about that later). It should give this team extra time to start to find chemistry. With this many new players on the court, that's something that's very necessary. However, in such a very short time coach Wes Miller and staff have made a complete roster overhaul. Now it's time to see if they can mold and coach these guys into the team that he envisions. Go Spartans !!!

Roster Turnover (Part 1)

The UNCG roster is going to look completely different for the 2013-2014 season. In the first segment of this 2 part post, I'm going to look back at the 2012-2013 roster and talk about some of the departures that have happened in the off season.

Derrell Armstrong - G - Senior
Korey Van Dussen - G - Senior
Kelvin McNeil - F/C - Senior
Brian Cole - F/C - Senior
Taylor Hoffer - F - RJr
Trevis Simpson - G/F - Jr
David Williams - F - Jr
Drew Parker - G - Jr
Kyle Cain - F/C - Jr*
Nick Paulos - G/F - So
Kayel Locke - F - Fr
Jordan Potts - G - Fr
RJ White - C - Fr

Departures
- Armstrong, Van Dussen, McNeil and Cole all graduated and expended all of their college eligibility. Redshirt junior Taylor Hoffor suffered a career ending achilles injury. Since he was already in graduate school, he will no longer use his final season of eligibility.

- Trevis Simpson decided in late march to forego his senior year of eligibility to pursue a professional basketball career. Simpson led the Southern Conference in scoring for the second straight season. He averaged 18.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last season.

- David Williams also decided in late March to seek his release from UNCG. I've not found where David will be playing next season or if he's intending to play anywhere else at all.

- Freshman center RJ White played very little after being injured early in the season and has been granted a medical redshirt. He will play next season as a redshirt freshman.

So, that means that UNCG is losing 7 of it's 13 scholarship players from last season. the 2013-2014 squad will definitely be young and have a completely new look to it. We'll go over that in part 2 of this post.

Former Sun Devil Coming to Greensboro

According to Dave Telep of ESPN Recruiting, Arizona State sophomore forward Kyle Cain (6'8" 210 lbs/Chicago, IL) is transferring to UNCG.

Last season, Cain averaged 7.5 pts and 5.5 rebounds per game. He was the 2nd leading rebounder for the Sun Devils.He tallied a season best 18 points at California on February 4 and he gathered 10+ rebounds 4 times. Cain was suspended for 2 games during the regular season for "unacceptable conduct". However, ASU coach Herb Sendek has a history of butting heads with players that dates all the way back to his time coaching NC State.

During his freshman campaign in Tempe, Cain appeared in all 31 games and started 23. He averaged 5.4 points and 5.5 rebounds. He grabbed a career best 18 rebounds against Houston Baptist on on 11/25/2010.

Previous to college, Kyle was an Illinios All-State selection in 2008-2009 at Thorton Fractional North HS near Chicago. He spent the 2009-2010 season at New Hampton (NH) Prep School. New Hampton is the Alma mater of rising UNCG sophomore Nick Paulos, as well as UNCG Head Coach Wes Miller and Associate Head Coach Mike Roberts. Cain originally signed with Rhode Island out of prep school. He was later granted his release and choose Arizona State.

Here is a YouTube highlight video of Cain at New Hampton.



Kyle will have to redshirt this season per NCAA rules. He will be eligible in 2013-2014 as a junior. UNCG athletics hasn't posted a story yet. I will attached an update when they do post an article.

Welcome to the Spartans, Kyle !!!

McNeil Transferring to UNCG

According to his Twitter page, Delaware senior Kelvin McNeil (6'8" PF Newport News, VA) has committed to spend his final season at UNCG. Kelvin will be eligible to play right away.

This past season, Kelvin averaged 2.4 points and 3.1 rebounds in 14.1 minutes for the Blue Hens. Delaware played in the post season CBI Tournament. McNeil pulled down a season best 9 rebounds against Villinova (11/18/11) and 13 points against Temple (12/30/11). Below are Youtube highlights of the Temple game, along with an interview.



McNeil had a solid first 2 seasons with the Blue Hens. He averaged 6 points and 6.2 rebounds (25.2 mins/game) his freshman season 5 points and 5 rebounds (19.8 mins/game) in his sophomore campaign. He missed 18 games during his freshman season with a knee injury. He redshirted during the 2008-2009seasson due to an injury in the preseason.

Below is a Youtube video of McNeil highlights from his sophomore campaign.



I'm still waiting to see official confirmation from UNCG. I'll post an update when that becomes available.

Randall to Central Michigan

From Twitter. Best of luck next season, Kyle !!!

Next year I will be a Central Michigan Chippewa! I can dig it

— Kyle Randall (@KRandy_12) April 21, 2012

Randall Transferring

Per ESPN, Kyle Randall has announced that he will graduate this spring and transfer to another university. The NCAA allows graduate students to transfer and be eligible right away.

I don't have any idea where he might end up landing. However, I do want to thank Kyle for the hard work he put in while at UNCG and wish him luck in the future.

Landon Clement Story

Friday I made a post discussing former players that had transferred to other places. On of the guys I mentioned was NC Central star, Landon Clement. Well, my timing was awesome. Today The Post Game column wrote a great article about Clement, detailing all of his struggles and triumphs. It is truly a good read.

Good luck going forward, Landon.

Transfer Update

I've been keeping up with a few players that were at one time very connected to the UNCG basketball program. I thought it would be a good time to look and see how those players are doing currently.

We can start with former UNCG guard Landon Clement. Clement transferred from UNCG to NC Central towards the end of the 2008-2009 season. After sitting out a year due to NCAA rules, Clement had a great junior season. He scored in double figures in all 30 of the Eagles games and finished the season averaging 18.7 points per game. Starting this season, Clement was voted preseason first team All-MEAC. Unfortunately, he has been facing injury issues that have allowed him to only play in 9 games. He has averaged scoring 15.9 points in those 9 games.

Next, let's check in on former UNCG forward Damien Eargle who transferred after his freshman season back to his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. Last season, the redshirt sophomore averaged 11.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and a whopping 3.0 blocks per game. This season, Eargle has improved his numbers for the Penguins. He is averaging 10.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.0 blocks through 24 games.

Former UNCG assistant coach Rod Jensen became the head coach at College of Idaho last season. Two former UNCG players have ended up on his current roster. DeAngelo Jackson appeared in 6 games for the Coyotes, averaging 4.2 points and 3.8 rebounds. Former Spartan walk-on guard Sean Spooner is averaging 4.4 points and 2.2 rebounds in close to 20 minutes of playing time per game.

Former Spartan forward Cody Henegar left the team at the end of the first semester. He has transferred to NCAA Division II Carson-Newman.

The final player I want to find is former UNCG commit Mike Liabo. Liabo singed his NLI to attend UNCG. However, unknown reasons caused the Spartans to release him from the NLI. Liabo ended up enrolling at Tennessee-Martin. He had a solid freshman campaign, averaging 11.2 points and 3.2 rebounds. This year he currently averages 14.9 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists.

Jackson Transfers

I have received quite a few emails asking me what happened to DeAngelo Jackson on this year's roster. Well, I came across this a long time ago, but completely forgot to post it.

According to Jeff Goodman, Jackson transferred to College of Idaho.

DeAngelo Jackson, 6-8, F, Soph., UNC-Greensboro – COLLEGE OF IDAHO

You'll remember that this is same school that hired assistant coach Rod Jensen this off season. So, I want to take this opportunity to thank DeAngelo for his effort while being at UNCG and wish him luck in the future.

Clement to NC Central

Former Spartan guard Landon Clement has transferred to NC Central according to both the News & Record and NCCU's athletics website. Central's new head coach, Levelle Morton is Clement's former AAU coach and high school coach. Clement averaged 6.7 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.4 assists in 18 games for UNCG this season. Clement shot over 30 % from behind the arc and 82% from the free throw line. Landon will have to sit out this upcoming season, per NCAA transfer rules.