Indians add more height, sign 4th recruit

A fourth player standing at least 6-feet-7 has completed Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball recruiting class for next season.

On Friday, forward Reggie Golson from Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College signed a national letter of intent with the Indians.

Golson, a 6-7, 195-pounder, averaged 10.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game as a sophomore. He shot 53 percent from the field and 67 percent from the free-throw line for a traditionally strong junior college team that went 22-8.

A native of Kansas City, Kan., Golson also drew interest from Minnesota, North Carolina-Wilmington, Long Beach State, Indiana State and Southwest Missouri.

"We're very happy to get Reggie signed," Southeast coach Gary Garner said. "He's a very good athlete who is a really good offensive rebounder. He can go out on the floor and shoot the three, he can score inside, he can handle the ball and he can jump."

Golson was a teammate at Hutchinson of 6-7, 230-pound forward Dainmon Gonner, who signed with the Indians on April 10. Southeast also signed 6-8, 225-pound forward/center Brandon Griffin of Southwest Mississippi Community College on April 10.

Rounding out Southeast's four-player recruiting class is 6-7, 210-pound forward Cole Grapperhaus, a senior at Breese High School in Mater Dei, Ill., who signed with the Indians during the early period last fall.

Garner doesn't profess to have solved all of the problems that helped contribute to the Indians' 6-22 record last season, but he said he feels very good about this recruiting class.

While Grapperhaus is a possible redshirt candidate, Gonner, Griffin and Golson could compete for a spot in the starting lineup.

"We've really helped ourselves in rebounding, which was our achillees heel last year," Garner said. "We've added size and athleticism. These players should help make us a much better basketball team."

The Indians failed land a point guard, but Garner said sophomores-to-be Brett Hale and Kevin Roberts can fill that role solidly.

"In using this last scholarship, we thought a lot about that," Garner said. "But we just have a lot of confidence in Brett and Kevin. Had there been an available guard out there that we felt was better than those two, we would have used it, but we didn't think there was one."

mmishow@semissourian.com

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