No. 9 – UT Martin Skyhawks
After tying for the OVC regular season title, UT Martin head coach Ryan Ridder was hired away by Mercer. His replacement Jeremy Shulman, has been wildly successful at the junior college level, but was looking for a Division 1 opportunity and he is originally from Tennessee and the Skyhawk job made sense for he and the university.
Remaking the roster hasn’t been easy, but Shulman used his junior college connections and has assembled a large group of transfers from that level. UT Martin may be the least recognizable in the conference.
Up and down the roster are players that have had productive junior college careers. How quickly the new look Skyhawks adjust to D1 hoops will be the key to the season.
Shulman averaged nearly twenty-five wins per season during his fourteen years at Eastern Florida State College. He recruited locally, nationally and internationally and has continued that trend at UTM.
In fact, twelve of his 16 players were born outside the United States. This ‘United Nations’ team may be breaking the university’s budget for translators. Four of his EFSC players traveled north with him to join the Skyhawk squad.
Matija Zuzic (12.4 ppg), Andrija Bukumirovic (9.8), Afan Trnka (5.7) and Carlos Cortijo (9.8) saw significant time with the Titans. Former EFSC opponents in the Florida College System Athletic Association, Josue Grullon and A.J. Hopkins have also traveled north. Grullon is a jucorecruiting.com's top-30 player nationally and the 6’5 guard averaged 20.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists for Datona State College. Hopkins contributed 9.6 points and 3.1 rebounds to Florida Southwestern State.
Junior college transfer Tarence Guinyard averaged over 20 points per game for Florida State College.
UC Riverside transfer Vlad Salaridze and Cal State Northridge transfer Lamine Niang are the only D1 newcomers and along holdover David Kamwanga provide the only Division 1 experience on the team.
UT Martin will is largely a mystery.