Upon accepting the South Carolina State men’s basketball coaching position two years ago, Tim Carter vowed to build a team in his image.

With his third incoming class complete, Carter’s roster next season will include just one player (forward Jason Flagler) whom he did not sign. In all, the Bulldogs have added six players to a team coming off its first winning season in three years and second-place regular-season showing in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

“If you had told me when I took over this program that I would be able to finish in second place in my second year, I would have taken that and been extremely happy with it because we had so far to go,” he said. “Jason (Johnson) and Josh (Jackson) did a tremendous job of taking care of our inside presence for us and then Flag was so consistent. With a couple of breaks, if we would have been able to keep I think a Darian Norris (the highly-touted senior point guard out of Las Vegas, Nev. who originally signed with S.C. State, only to be granted a release from his letter of intent to sign with Bradley University, where he left after this past season to transfer to Salt Lake Community College in Utah), we maybe would have been really ahead of the schedule. But I’m really proud of where we are.”

In addition to early signees Joe Wright (6-7, 240 lbs. of Olney Central College/Marion High School) and Rio Pitt (6-8, Stoney Brook College), S.C. State added two Georgia forwards in 6-9, 175-pound Jodd Maxey of Winder-Barrow High School in Stalham and 6-8, 240-pound Rondrico Hightower of Angelina Community College in Lufkin, Texas and formerly of Laney High School in Augusta.

Maxey averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds per game in his senior year and was a first-team All-sub-region 8A-AAAA selection. Hightower averaged 13 points and eight rebounds per game last year for the Roadrunners. Both will look to fill the void left by the graduation of All-MEAC forward/center Jason Johnson and College of Charleston transfer Josh Jackson.

In an effort to shore up a backcourt whose turnover-prone play proved costly in the MEAC tournament semifinal loss to Norfolk State, S.C. State signed Tyvon Williams, a 5-11 point guard out of the Bronx, N.Y., who averaged 10 points and 3.75 assists per game in two seasons at Monroe College and Shaquille Barber, a 6-0, 180-pound point guard out of Griffin High School where he was named the Class 4-A Player of the Year.

“I am extremely happy with the class we have signed,” Carter said. “We have addressed our inside and perimeter needs with the loss of Jason Johnson and Josh Jackson, along with the loss of point guard Jesse Burton.”

The S.C. State women’s basketball team plans to release its list of signees within the next two weeks, according to head coach Doug Robertson.

T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached by e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5547. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

 

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