Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team adds Alabama transfer

~ Marganthaler closed his recruiting class with two transfer players

Southeast Missouri State women's basketball coach Ty Margenthaler wrapped up his spring recruiting Tuesday by signing a transfer guard with three years of Southeastern Conference experience and a 6-foot-3 junior college transfer post player.

Jasmine Robinson started all but two games the past two years at Alabama after starting seven games as a freshman. She recorded 42 career double-figure scoring performances for the Crimson Tide.

Robinson will have to sit out next season under NCAA transfer rules, but she will be able to practice with the Redhawks and will be eligible for her final collegiate season in 2014-15.

Kenyada Brown comes to Southeast from Moberly (Mo.) Area Community College. She will have two years of eligibility with the Redhawks beginning next season.

"I'm extremely excited about both players," Margenthaler said. "They are really going to help our basketball program."

The 5-foot-7 Robinson was the third-leading scorer for the 2012-13 Alabama squad that went 13-18 overall and 2-14 in SEC play, averaging 9.5 points to go along with 3.9 rebounds. She shot 35.8 percent from the field overall and 26.3 percent from 3-point range while ranking third on the team in assists (46) and steals (49).

Robinson led the Tide in scoring as a sophomore in 2011-12, averaging 11.4 points and 3.1 rebounds for a squad that went 12-19 overall and 2-14 in the SEC. She shot 34 percent, including 27.1 percent from beyond the arc, while ranking third in assists (40) and second in steals (44).

She averaged 7.4 points and 2.7 rebounds as a freshman for a team that went 18-15 overall and 5-11 in the SEC. She shot 29.6 percent, including 21.1 percent on 3-pointers.

"To be able to get a player with her capabilities, with her wealth of experience from playing at a high level in the SEC is really big for us," said Margenthaler, who has not had a Division I transfer during his first two seasons at Southeast. "She can play the one [point guard] or two [shooting guard]. She's very athletic. She's a slasher, she can really get to the basket and she has a really good mid-range game.

"She's a great defender who always defended the best player on the opposing team. I know we'll only have her for a year playing-wise, but the experience she'll get next year learning our system will be invaluable. I think she'll be a game-changing player for us."

Robinson, a native of Memphis, Tenn., was ranked the 65th overall recruit by ESPNU HoopGurlz in the class of 2010. The two-time all-stater was coached at Overton High School in Memphis by current Southeast assistant men's basketball coach Jamie Rosser.

Robinson averaged 21 points per game as a senior in helping lead Overton to its first Tennessee state tournament berth since 1967.

"Coach Rosser coached her in high school, and that's how we got wind of her," Margenthaler said. "After she got her release [from Alabama], we talked to her and she came down for a visit. It was just a really good match for her and us."

Brown, who began her college career at Division I Hampton, will give the Redhawks much-needed size inside.

Brown played just four games for Hampton in 2011-12 before transferring to Moberly, where the native of Cincinnati, Ohio., averaged 4.6 points and 5.0 rebounds last season while starting all but two games for a squad that went 23-8.

"She's has good size, strength and athleticism. She can rebound and she can clog up the middle," Margenthaler said. "She's a true center, something we really haven't had in the two years that I've been here. She's a different type of player that we don't have."

Margenthaler said Southeast's recruiting for this year is finished. The haul includes eight players, including two landed earlier during the spring signing period and four landed in November during the fall signing period.

Five of the eight are high school seniors and two are junior college sophomores who will all be eligible next season.

"With this recruiting class I feel like we've taken care of every position one through five," Margenthaler said. "We'll have great competition at every position, which is very healthy."