Spivery gives SU roster overhaul

• By PERRYN KEYS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 9, 2009 - Page: 1C

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In more than two decades as a college basketball coach, Rob Spivery said he never endured a season like last year’s disaster at Southern.

“It was very much a surprise,” he said. “When you recruit, coming in, they all look good. But you never know how they’re going to get along with each other and where the leadership is going to come from. Team chemistry is so important, and we just did not have it last year. That did not help.”

Perhaps that’s why Spivery gave his roster a major makeover.

Intent on proving last year’s 8-23 record was an aberration, Spivery has made significant changes, signing six guards so far —  four from junior colleges, one from a prep school and one more from high school.

And in making room for newcomers, several veterans won’t be returning.

Southern lost three seniors in guards Chris Davis, Steffon Wiley and Geri Guillory.

Two post players, Tim Brown and André Davis, were suspended last season for what Spivery called “conduct unbecoming of a college basketball player;” although he didn’t go into detail, Spivery said neither player will return.

Promising guard Lester Johnson Jr., who took a redshirt last season, has returned home to Tulsa, Okla., because “his father is gravely ill,” Spivery said.

Also, freshman point guard Brian Talley has enrolled in a junior college, Spivery said.
Meanwhile, four new junior-college transfers are headed to Southern.

They include:

• Bobby Lee, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Carl Albert State College in Poteau, Okla., who ranked 18th nationally among junior-college players in scoring at 20.5 points per game.Lee could take over the same role held last season by shooting guard Chris Davis, who led the Jaguars with 14.8 points per game. “He can score in a lot of different ways — off the dribble, moving without the ball — and his basketball IQ is very high,” Carl Albert coach Mike St. John said. “The one thing Bobby needs to overcome is that his motor is not always going forward. He knows that. It’s just a matter of him going and doing it.”
• Johnnie Young, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Western Oklahoma State College, who averaged 9.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game as a sophomore. A native of Edmond, Okla., Young played at Redlands (Okla.) Community College as a freshman. “He might have had some issues with his grades at Redlands. ... But he can shoot coming off the screen. He can drive with the basketball, and the other thing is he’s very active on defense,” Western Oklahoma coach Rolando De La Barrera said. “I think he’s a low- to mid-level Division I player, a versatile player.”
• Point guard Marcus Brister, who played high school basketball at Duncanville, Texas, and spent one season as a seldom-used reserve at Iowa State. Brister left ISU after his freshman season for what coach Greg McDermott called “a personal matter back in Texas that needs his attention.” The 6-foot-2 guard played last season at Weatherford (Texas) College, where he averaged 14.1 points and 6.2 assists.
• Point guard Nick Walls, a 6-foot-1 native of Memphis, Tenn., who started at Kilgore (Texas) College and finished at North Dakota State College of Science last season. Both are two-year institutions. Walls and Maurice Foster, a New Orleans native, both started at Kilgore and transferred to follow their coach, Scott Schumacher, to North Dakota (Foster has signed to play at Nicholls State).
  Walls averaged 5.6 assists as a sophomore. The team finished 31-4 and ranked 10th in the final NJCAA poll.

“For (Walls and Foster) to secure a college degree and have the opportunity to continue their education while playing basketball ... is as gratifying for me as earning a berth in the national tournament,” Schumacher said.

Spivery said he understands that signing so many junior-college players is something of a gamble, but said he thought he and his staff “did our homework” with the four new junior-college signees.
The four junior guards join two other signees — Tony McGilveary, a 6-foot-5 swingman from Fort Worth, Texas, and Jameel Grace, a 5-foot-8 point guard from South Orange, N.J.