Bears add final piece?

by **BEELINE** » May 14th, 2011, 8:10 am

In what may be the final piece to this year's team and recruiting class MSU has signed 3rd team juco All-American combo forward , 6'6, 220 lb Corbin Thomas from SW Illionos and Dolton HS in Chicago area. Thomas flew a bit under the radar as injury and illness kept him from much play in his frosh year, but he came on strong as this year evolved and ended up averaging 19ppg and 9rbs in securing All American honors. Thomas is described as versatile and relentless and considered one of the best defenders in juco basketball. Bears now have added jucos Anthony Downing 6'1,pg, 18ppg; Jamar Gulley 6'4 sm, 23 ppg[1st team AA,d-2] ; and Thomas to earlier signed frosh, Christian Kirk 6'7, Drew Wilson 6'7, and Dorrian Williams 6'1.

Add the return of ultra athletic rs soph Keith Pickens 6'4 swingman who started 17 games as a frosh in 2009/10 and I think reports of our rapid desent may prove a bit premature. We are a bigger, deeper, and more athletic team than last year, albeit unproven. But time takes care of that.

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by **Red** » May 18th, 2011, 11:06 am

Also saw that the Bears are adding a one year transfer from dePaul. Not sure why, they are.

by **valleychamp** » May 18th, 2011, 11:37 am

Mike Bizoukas, the transfer from Depaul, was a UNI commit out of high school.

by **MSUDuo** » May 18th, 2011, 12:29 pm

Red wrote:Also saw that the Bears are adding a one year transfer from dePaul. Not sure why, they are.

For two things really

One, we lost Aaron Cooper. He decided to transfer out so that opened this last scholarship and took us down to 2 PGs

Two, Bizoukis will provide leadership and has D1 experience. Both of which we will be on the short end this year.

His stats don't say much but if he can come in and provide said leadership to the younger guys and be a backup PG for 10-15 minutes, he will be very helpful to this team

By getting him I am hoping that Lusk decides to red-shirt our freshman PG in Dorrian Williams since we also signed a JUCO PG and have Pickens coming back who can also play the at the PG spot.

I am starting to love the makeup of this team and right now don't expect to finish below 5th but think we could be picked lower than that by the coaches/media in the pre-season poll. I think WSU and CU are too far ahead of everyone else at this point but I do think MO State will challenge with UNI, UE, and ISUb for 3rd-6th.

Like valleychamp said, he was a UNI commit out of HS and he down to between MO State and Creighton this time around.

by **BEELINE** » May 18th, 2011, 5:53 pm

Pickens can't play pg except defensively , Copeland has the much better handles if we had to go that direction. That said, I don't like redshirting Williams and then having zero experience behind Downing next year. It's a rare circumstance I like tying up scholys for 5 years in basketball.