Sun Sep 05 2010
By LYNN GROLL
The Defiance College men's basketball team along with second-year head coach Kyle Brumett will welcome seven new faces to the program this winter after a successful recruiting campaign.
"It was an interesting recruiting year with this being my first," said Brumett, who guided DC to an 18-9 overall and 12-4 HCAC mark in his first season with the Jackets. "There's always a learning curve for every new place you're at. I think we had that, but at the same time, we managed it or overcame it because we've had some success. I've been doing this for a little while and I kind of knew what we were looking for."
A pair of Defiance six-county hoopsters are part of the incoming freshmen class with Ayersville's Logan Wolfrum and Pettisville's Michael Deffely joining DC.
To the south, DC landed Celina standout Derek Gagle (6-2 guard) and 6-0 guard Clayton Nieport of Versailles.
Brumett and the Jackets will also greet a pair of roundballers from Division III state champion Cleveland Central Catholic. Backcourt starters Brandon Campbell and Derrick Bufford helped the Ironmen post a 45-38 triumph over Tinora in the Division III championship at the Schottenstein Center in March. Bufford (6-4, 180) and Campbell (6-1, 160) both tallied 10 points in CCC's victory over the Rams.
DC's final recruit is Columbus native Courtney Byers from Horizon Science High School.
"I think one of the real interesting things about recruiting for men's basketball here at Defiance is that you can look in a lot of different places and have success," remarked Brumett. "I've been really impressed and happy with the interest and the level of talent in the coaches here in northwest Ohio. We were able to pluck a few kids from right here in the area and then maybe not in your reading area, but just a little further away from that as well, still within an hour or hour and a half radius. That's obviously something that we want to continue to be kind of our bread-and-butter."
Brumett was pleased to get both Wolfrum and Deffely into the program.
"We did a good job with a few kids like that (local kids)," said Brumett. "Logan Wolfrum from Ayersville was a kid we targeted last summer as someone we thought had the skill set to be a good player at our level."
Deffely, like Wolfrum, was part of a very successful high school program during this days with the Blackbirds.
"Mike is just a real competitor," lauded Brumett. "He's a guy that might not always wow you with his stats or even with his physical abilities. But, he's a winner and his team's have been successful. He does a lot of the little things to be a good player."
Gagle was also a key ingredient in the Celina football program and is expected to be ready for the basketball season after having shoulder surgery at the end of his senior season.
"Derek's a little bit bigger guard, 6-2, 6-21/2," said Brumett. "He's a really good shooter, so we're excited about adding him. He's a kid that battled some injuries and played multiple sports in high school. He was a good football player, his brother was a college football player, so he's physically more ready than a lot of freshmen."
Nieport netted nearly 18 ppg. as a senior at Versailles and is an all-purpose type guard.
"He was a really good player for them," said Brumett. "He's another guard that can do multiple things. He can play the point, and off the ball is a really good passer and has proven he can score against really good competition."
Brumett is hopeful that Campbell can take some of the load off senior to-be point man Mike Floyd, who dished out 6.8 assists per outing last year and played a team-high 33 minutes per contest.
"He's a guy that we think can come in and help take some pressure off of Mike," said Brumett. "That (taking pressure off Floyd) was a big key to what we were trying to do in recruiting in this year's class. We were just putting to much pressure on him with playing him so many minutes."
According to Brumett, Bufford mirrors upcoming sophomore Kyle Tietje with his long and thin 6-4 frame while having the ability to do anything on the court.
"We hope those guys come in and continue the winning mentality, and hopefully make our practices better," said Brumett of the Cleveland connection.
Although the Jackets lost only two seniors to graduation, the departure of 6-8 center Anthony Pettaway (1,477 career points) forces the Jackets to fill some mammoth shoes in the paint.
"Everyone looks at our team and sees the obvious hole, we lose Anthony," said Brumett. "How are you going to replace him? You're not. You're not going to replace him, at our level, guys that are 6-8, 250 pounds that start for four years (are rare). Not only that, but also work as hard as Pett did, they don't just come around in every recruiting class. We knew that in recruiting, we knew we weren't going to be able to come out and find another guy like that."
Floyd is joined by fellow starters Eric Stolly (senior guard), Heath Armstrong (senior guard) and Nick Sales (senior forward) for the 2009-10 season.
Bench contributors Nate Conley (senior forward) and Josh Stuckey (senior forward) also bring back plenty of experience along with sophomores Kyle and Kevin Tietje, Brandon Hoke, Anthony Brown and Justin Morris.
Comments
By Posting to this site, you agree to our Terms of Service Be polite.
Inappropriate posts may be removed.
Crescent-News.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.
Login above or Register to comment.
0 Total Comments Home | Back
Copyright Defiance Publishing, LLC 1995-2010. All Rights Reserved.
Content may not be republished without the expresse written consent of the publisher.
Content may not be republished without the expresse written consent of the publisher.
Dix Communications