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April 12, 2012

Courrier: Another turn for roster churn for MSU men

By Chad Courrier Free Press Staff Writer

— Back in November, some “genius” wrote in the newspaper that the future looked bright for the Minnesota State men’s basketball team.

He wrote that some of the incoming freshmen looked like “high-level” players who would get better as the season progressed. He wrote that the Mavericks could finish as high as third in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, but more likely a little lower.

He was wrong.

Of the seven new players who were at the first practice Oct. 15, only two will be back next season. The team’s improvement was stunted by the small roster, and the Mavericks finished 13th in a 14-team league, cushioned from the cellar only by Minnesota Crookston.

On Wednesday, coach Matt Margenthaler announced that transfers Jarvis Williams and Gage Wooten are the next two pieces of another roster overhaul.

Williams, in whom the Mavericks showed some interest coming out of Kirkwood Community College two years ago, is a one-year player from Wisconsin-Green Bay who appears to be an aggressive, high-intensity wing player who doesn’t mind charging the basket, either to score or rebound. Wooten, a junior-college All-American, is more of a shooter, content to work though the offense to get shots, rather than create one-on-one.

The 2012-13 roster actually started to take shape in November when Redwood Valley senior Mike Busack signed, and it looked at the time like that might be about it. But since then, transfers Torreio Williams, D.J. Hoskins and Charles McNeal left, and freshmen Kelly Madison and Miles Chamberlain will be gone soon.

That opened spots for transfers Assem Marei, a center who could be the focal point of next year’s team, and point guard Jayme Moten, who will likely split time with Jimmy Whitehead at point guard.

Combine that with veterans Connor O’Brien, Alex Hanks and Travis Meinders, and promising freshmen Zach Romashko and T.J. Okafor, and the roster looks better now than it did in November. And there’s still a couple of open spots for potential late transfers.

You know that last season was tough on the coach, and he seems determined not to repeat the same mistakes that were made in the last recruiting class.

But be warned. Teams always look better before they actually take the court, which won’t happen until Oct. 15.

That “genius” drank the Kool-Aid last season and was disappointed, spending some long nights at the arena, giving more thought to an improved women’s team than how the men’s team would fare.

It shouldn’t be tough to show improvement, coming off a seven-win seasons, but it seems more prudent to let this revamped roster show a little more before it gets taken too seriously.



Chad Courrier is a Free Press staff writer. To contact him, call 507-344-6353 or e-mail at ccourrier@mankatofreepress.com or check out his local sports blog at www.mankatofreepress.com.

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