ABILENE – First-year ACU head coach
Joe Golding announced 11 additions to the ACU men's basketball roster on Thursday, including five transfers and one high school signee who figure to make an immediate impact on the 2011-12 Wildcats.
The five transfers are junior point guard
Marc Little (New Mexico Junior College), shooting guard
Kendall Durant (Alabama), guard
Armani Williams (Texas-Arlington), forward
Eric Kibi (Arkansas-Little Rock), and guard
Antonio Bell (South Georgia Tech Community College). The lone high school signee is Kennedale forward
Da-Juan Cooper, one of the top 50 players in the state.
Golding also added five walk-ons, including Zach Kittley of Frenship, Conner Osburn of Southlake Carroll and
Paxton Kelley of Sweetwater. Kittley is the son of former ACU track and field coach and ACU Sports Hall of Famer Wes Kittley.
Four of the players that Golding expects to make an impact on this year's team – Little, Durant, Williams and Bell – are all guards, a position that Golding knows must be a strength if the Wildcats are to turn around a program that has only made one appearance in the Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament since 1997-98.
Little was a two-year starter at NMJC, and last year he led the team in scoring (11 points per game), leading his squad to 21 wins. Durant – the cousin of NBA all-star Kevin Durant – was a 3-star recruit who signed with Virginia Tech out of high school.
Durant, however, went to Weatherford College where he averaged 17 points per game before signing with Alabama prior to last season. He now brings his 6-3, 185-pound frame to ACU where Golding is counting on him to give the Wildcats scoring punch from the backcourt.
Williams averaging seven points and 18 minutes per game last year at Texas-Arlington, burying 92 3-pointers in two seasons at UTA. Bell led his junior college team to a 28-8 record and a national tournament appearance his freshman season.
"We were able to go get a good group of guards because if you don't have good guards in the Lone Star Conference you're not going to go very far," Golding said. "We had to get some guys who can make an immediate impact at those two guard spots, and we were able to do that."
The two forwards the Wildcats brought in are Kibi and Cooper. Kibi played for Golding at Arkanasas-Little Rock, averaging 17 minutes a game last year for a team that reached the NCAA Tournament. Cooper led Kennedale to a 31-3 record last season and was a first team all-state selection who played in the Texas High School Coaches' Association game in July.
"We're really happy with the entire group that we were able to bring in," Golding said. "We're really excited about getting Cooper out of Kennedale. We want to build a good foundation with the Texas high school coaches, and getting a guy with his ability is a good way to start doing just that."
