After ending last year near the bottom in the Mid American Conference in offense, the Ball State University basketball team now faces the task of replacing nearly 60 percent of its scoring for the upcoming season.
It began with the graduation of Chris Ames, D'Andre Peyton and leading scorer Skip Mills. In addition, Jalon Perryman, Steve Hornton and most recently Ahmaad Cook decided to transfer to new schools.
Originally from Inglewood, Calif., it was announced Monday that Cook had decided to leave Ball State to be closer to home, the Athletic Department said.
"He played a key role for our team this past season as just a freshman," coach Ronny Thompson said in a press release. "However, we also understand and support his desire to return closer to his family in California."
In order to replace the six Cardinals who left the Nest, Thompson signed eight recruits from all corners of the nation.
"I'm excited about our flexibility," Thompson said. "I'm excited for the individual workouts just to see who can do what."
The Cardinals struggled with size and interior presence last season with only one player, Micah Rollin, taller than six-foot-six-inches. Three of the incoming players are six-foot-seven-inches or taller.
One of those taller players is C.J. Clark. Clark is a six-foot-seven-inch prospect coming to Ball State from Penola College in Carthage, Texas. He averaged 14 points and four rebounds per game at Penola last season.
"He plays a lot like Anthony Newell," Thompson said. "He has the ability to knock down shots, which is intriguing for somebody his size. He's going to be a very valuable person to our team."
Clark made 48 percent of his shots last year, including 39 percent from behind the arc.
In addition to Clark, six-foot-nine-inch Kevin Ford and six-foot-eight-inch Robert Martina signed to play at Ball State.
Around the same time as Clark, Laron Frazier and Deontay Twyman signed with Ball State. Both are six-foot point guards, however, Twyman comes straight from high school while Frazier spent two years in community college.
Twyman is from Sherwood High School in Sandy Springs, Md. He averaged 17 points, eight assists, six rebounds and three steals while winning the Maryland Class 4A State Championship. He was also Sherwood's starting quarterback and the star on the team. In his football career, Twyman amassed more than 7,000 yards and 80 touchdowns.
For his accomplishments he became the first person to be named All-Met in both football and basketball by the Washington Post in 17 years.
"We were just fortunate to land him," Thompson said. "It was very competitive."
The eight recruits come from seven states.
"A lot of it is you got to have contacts, you got to know people in different parts of the world," Thompson said.
Ball State signs the best players they can no matter the location, Thompson said.
"We've done a good job of branching out and getting players from all over regardless of where they are from," Thompson said. "Recruiting has gone from being regional to national to now international, and we try our best to take advantage of it."
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