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NCAA Basketball: Richie Riley continues to reel in talent to South Alabama

By Mychal Hunter

LAS VEGAS, NV - NOVEMBER 11: Don MuepoKelly #25 of the South Alabama Jaguars drives to the basket against the UNLV Rebels during their game at the Thomas & Mack Center on November 11, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. South Alabama won 76-68. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - NOVEMBER 11: Don MuepoKelly #25 of the South Alabama Jaguars drives to the basket against the UNLV Rebels during their game at the Thomas & Mack Center on November 11, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. South Alabama won 76-68. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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With Georgia St. and GA Southern transitioning, South Alabama is closing the gap in the Sun Belt. That’s due to the talented NCAA Basketball transfers coming to the Jaguars.

The Sunbelt Conference has long been one of my favorite conferences. In fact, this past season I volunteered to preview the conference’s post season tournament for the Rockin’ Pregame show. A not so humble plug, I know. Prior to the 2018-19 season, many folks who are more knowledgeable of the mid majors than I, applauded South Alabama’s hiring of Richie Riley, who formerly coached Nichols State.

The 2018 Southland Coach of the Year had the reputation as a strong recruiter and made an immediate impact for the Jaguars by landing South Carolina graduate transfer Kory Holden for the 2018-19 campaign. Holden made a name for himself during two years at Delaware, scoring just a shade under 900 points before transferring up to join Frank Martin’s Gamecocks.

The move did not work out well for Holden as he only notched 47 points in 152 minutes over 14 games for South Carolina before grad transferring to Riley’s new program. He averaged 10 points per game this season and shot an outstanding 47% from beyond the arc.

This offseason, Riley is back at it, landing two very nice transfers in eight days. Chad Lott, arguably one of the best players in the MEAC last season, decided to spend his graduate transfer year at South Alabama on 4/29 and will slide right into the void left by Holden’s departure. A 6’4 guard, Lott averaged 14.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists for Howard last season. He also shot north of 42% from deep and made the All-Conference Third Team.

Yesterday, Riley landed a big fish. DeAundre Ballard, a transfer from Florida, announced that he will be attending South Alabama as well. Ballard, a former top 60 recruit in the 2017 class, is a sit one, play two transfer and will immediately become one of the top athletes in the Sunbelt. The 6’5 wing hails from Atlanta GA and attended powerhouse South West Atlanta Christ Academy, the same school that produced NBA players Dwight Howard and Javaris Crittenton.

In 59 career games Ballard averaged 4.1 points and 1.7 rebounds per game while only receiving just north of 11 minutes per game. His three-point shooting improved mightily during his sophomore campaign where he went from 15% to 31.3%. His per 40 averages suggest he would eventually be a player at the SEC level if given the opportunity, at the Sunbelt level he could be a force.

Next. Early preseason top-25 for 2019-20. dark

This is the type of transfer down that could really benefit a program such as South Alabama, who has been trampled by traditional Sunbelt powers Georgia State, UT-A and Louisiana in recent years. Georgia State just lost its best player and head coach. Georgia Southern just lost one the best players in program history as well. Meanwhile, the Jaguars return their two top scorers from last season in Josh Ajayi (16.4 ppg) and Trhae Mitchell (13.6 ppg). The time is now for South Alabama, and Richie Riley looks like he is preparing to make the Sunbelt his.