EAVES ADDS LOCAL FLAVOR WITH RECRUITS

Two signees, transfer have ties to Gate City

 GREENSBORO, N.C., April 27, 2006 – N.C. A&T men’s basketball head coach Jerry Eaves wants to build a basketball program with strong in-state recruiting. He started to fulfill that goal with signing freshmen James Porter and Chris Faison last year. This season he has added three more players to what is now a roster full of North Carolina natives.

 Eaves announced the signings of 6-foot-7 forward Robert Johnson from Greensboro Dudley High and 6-foot point guard Tavarus Alston of Greensboro Smith High to national letters of intent. In addition, UNC Asheville transfer Steven Rush, a product of Greensboro Day School, and Bowling Green transfer Nick Wilson will be eligible for the 2006-07 season.

 “In my first press conference, I said that in order to be successful, a program has to have inroads in its own state, especially on this level,” said Eaves. “When I first arrived, we recruited local athletes, but no one knew who we were. Now that we are established, we can get in-state players to come here. It’s a testament not only to the recruiting efforts of the coaching staff, but to the players that are already here that believe in our system.”

Rush, a 5-10 guard from High Point, played two seasons at UNC Asheville, where he averaged 9.6 points per game as a sophomore. Known as an outstanding perimeter shooter, he hit 98 3-pointers in two years. He will have two years of eligibility at N.C. A&T.

At Greensboro Day, he scored more than 1,600 points and led the school to a state championship in 2002. He is also an outstanding student-athlete and has maintained a grade-point average above 3.0 while sitting out last season.

“I love his old-school personality,” said Eaves of Rush. “There is an old saying that you don’t always measure an athlete in his athletic ability, but in the spirit they bring. He brings in that winning spirit and makes everything better for his teammates and coaches. Steven has the best attitude of anybody that I have been around. Most transfers come in looking for playing time. Not only did he start and play [at UNC Asheville], he made big plays and hit big shots.”

Johnson averaged 15.3 points and 7.9 rebounds for a team that finished 27-5 this season and   won its second straight state championship on March 11 at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill.

 “[Robert] is the first true 6-foot-7 wing that I can put on the floor since I’ve been here,” Eaves said. “He played as a wing at Dudley which will make his adjustment to my system easier for him. He is a solid jump shooter out to 15 feet. The most important thing we like about him is that he is a winner with back-to-back state championships, and he has improved every year. That indicates that he has a strong work ethic. He is still growing as well and could project to be 6-8 or 6-9.”

Alston averaged 18.5 points and six assists this season at Smith, where he and Johnson were arch-rivals. The two also were AAU teammates for several years.

“Alston is very quick with the ball and likes the style we play,” said Eaves. “We know he can score as well, but more importantly, he can go by people with either hand and just flat out loves to play basketball. It was normal to see him and Johnson go at each other in the local YMCA. We feel that he’s a sleeper, a real steal at this level.”

Wilson, 6-foot-5 forward from Kingston, Jamaica, played in three games at Bowling Green during the 2005-06 season and enrolled at N.C. A&T this spring. Wilson played high school basketball at Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey, leading his team to four conference championships. He averaged 15 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and four steals as a senior, earning first team All-Conference honors.

“Nick has a strong, athletic body and is a good standing shooter out to 3-point range,” Eaves said. “He’s not going to break you down off the dribble or do anything fancy, but he will do the little things – box out and rebound, play position defense, and make open jump shots – that will make him a good basketball player for us. He has a good feel for the game and he’s smart on the floor, which is what we want.”

The Aggies will now field their first team in the Eaves era with 13 recruited scholarship athletes, giving the team depth and balance that were lacking in previous seasons. “We now have the ability to play full-court basketball,” said Eaves. “We can go twelve bodies deep, and the bonus factor is that the walk-ons that return have experience and will expect to play. So now everything we do will be more intense from practices to game time. I do not expect us just to compete as we have done. I want to win, and now, we have the tools to do that.” 

Eaves is not finished with recruiting, as he plans to sign at least two junior college players in the late signing period, which ends on May 16.