Ohio Valley Re-Stocking the Shelves

(St. Louis, MO) – April is an important month to college basketball programs. The second of two major signing periods for basketball players is April 12 and often there are late school year transfers.

Austin Peay has a new coach, Morehead State solidified its coaching situation and Jacksonville State’s Ray Harper continues to build the Gamecocks into a new force in the OVC.

A New Governor

Matt Figger became the first new head coach at Austin Peay since 1990. The former South Carolina assistant takes over from long time Governor leader Dave Loos. Figger was Frank Martin’s recruiting coordinator and assistant for the Final Four team. He spent roughly ten years with Martin at Kansas State and USC.

Stability at Morehead State

After guiding Morehead State to a 10-6 OVC record as interim head coach, Preston Spradlin was given the job to lead the Eagles into the coming seasons. After five years working on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky, Spradlin came to MSU in 2014.

Since his hiring, Spradlin has hired Beau Braden and J.T. Burton and promoted Jonathan Mattox to his coaching staff. Burton was a huge siging. The former Motlow College head coach, not only has head coaching experience, but his program sent many talented players to Division 1 teams. Braden is returning to Morehead where he previously coached.

Recruiting Advances

Eastern Kentucky’s Dan McHale continues to be a recruiting star. Verbal Commits says EKU is tied for the second best OVC class. VC calls Dedric Boyd is a three-star Brownsville, Tennessee shooting guard. Odessa College transfer Anrio Adams is a 3.3 star preparing for his senior season with the Colonels. Add to those potential star players the eligibility of Jackson Davis who transferred to EKU last season.

After two-subpar seasons at Murray State, Matt McMahon hit the recruiting trail and has landed the best OVC class. The head-liners in the class are three-star freshman Tevin Brown and transfer Leroy Buchanan, who, according to Verbal Commits, is this year’s 66^th best junior college transfer.

Other highly rated newcomers are Belmont’s DeAndre Bradshaw, Jacksonville State’s Maurice Dunlap, Morehead State’s Devon Cooper and Tennessee State’s Kamar McKnight.

Defections Abound

Several programs have been hit by the transfer bug. Most significant are the multiple departures at Eastern Illinois. Casey Teson, Patrick Muldoon and Marshawn Blackmon are all leaving the Panther program. Jared Savage is leaving Austin Peay and Miguel Dicent is transferring from Morehead State. Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Carlos Anderson is leaving as is SEMO’s Joel Angus.