Louisiana's Late Signing Period complete with 4 Signees
LOUISIANA La. - With the 2005-06 season late signing period in the books, officially ending on May 18, Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball head coach Robert Lee announced Friday four new additions to the program.
Joining the roster of the two-time defending Sun Belt Conference Tournament champions will be Ed Turner (Central Florida Community College), Jake Fields (Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College), David Dees (Liberty University) and Maurice Barksdale (Blinn College).
Barksdale, Fields and Turner are all junior college transfers who will be eligible to compete for the Ragin’ Cajuns during the upcoming 2005-06 season. Dees, who transferred from NCAA Division I member Liberty University, must sit out the 2005-06 season per NCAA transfer rules and will be eligible to return to the court as a junior in 2006-07.
Barksdale spent the past two seasons at Blinn College. At Blinn, the 5-foot-11 guard averaged 15.6 points and 5.6 assists as a freshman and 19 points and 6.0 assists last season.
Barksdale prepped at Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Md., where he was named Player of the Year in Baltimore and Player of the Year in Maryland his senior season. As a senior, in 2002-03, he averaged 24 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and five steals per game.
Dees was a First Team All-Big South Conference selection during the 2004-05 season averaging 16.2 points and 5.1 rebounds for Liberty University. He led the Flames in 3-point field goals (48), free throw percentage (77 percent) and 20-point scoring games (9).
Dees arrived on the college scene in the 2003-04 season earning Big South All-Freshman honors. He led the Flames with 22 points (7-of-9 FGs, 3-of-4 3-pt FGs and 5-of-6 FTs) against top-seeded St. Joseph's in the first round of the NCAA Tournament en route to being named the Chevrolet Player of the Game.
Dees, a graduate and four-year letterwinner from Dayton Christian Academy in Dayton, Ohio, has completed two seasons of collegiate eligibility and will have his junior and senior seasons ahead of himself at Louisiana beginning with the 2006-07 season.
Fields is a native of Hanceville, Ala., who spent the past two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College. Fields averaged 15 points, shot above 30 percent from three-point range and was an 80 percent shooter from the free throw line at MGCJC last season.
Fields was Alabama’s Class 3A Player of the Year in his junior year and finished his prep career at Hanceville High School averaging 24 points and 12 boards per game.
Turner is a 6-foot-8 forward who played the 2004-05 season at Central Florida Community College. Prior to arriving at CFCC, Turner signed with the University of Pittsburgh out of high school and, after redshirting during the 2002-03 season, played for the Panthers in 2003-04 before transferring to junior college.
Turner saw action in eight games with Pitt during the 2003-04 season. Last season at CFCC he averaged 18 points and eight rebounds shooting 60 percent from the field which included 40-plus percent from three-point range.
A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Turner was a 2002 graduate of Turner-Carroll High School. He averaged 20 points and nine rebounds as a senior and 16 points and seven rebounds as a junior. He led Turner-Carroll to the city championship game in both his junior and senior seasons
Turner’s father, Edward, was a 1982 second-round draft pick of the Houston Rockets. His father was a three-time All-American at Texas A&M-Kingsville where he averaged 27.3 ppg/12.8 rpg as a junior and 18.0 ppg/11.7 rpg as a senior.
The quartet of Barksdale, Dees, Field and Turner join the Cajuns early period signee Booker Woodfox on the 2005-06 recruiting class.
RAGIN' CAJUNS LATE SIGNING PERIOD SIGNEES
Maurice Barksdale (Blinn College)
David Dees (Liberty University)
Jake Fields (Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College)
Ed Turner (Central Florida Community College)
LOUISIANA SI
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Re: Louisiana's Late Signing Period complete with 4 Signees
