Veteran transfers raise level of play, expectations for NAU
After an injury-ravaged 9-23 season, sixth-year Northern Arizona coach Jack Murphy is keeping his fingers crossed for better health and looking to some incoming veterans to push the Lumberjacks back into the upper echelon of the Big Sky Conference.
The Lumberjacks have added transfers Malcolm Allen (Stanford), Gino Littles (Texas-San Antonio), Karl Harris (Indian Hills CC, Iowa) and Ruben Fuamba (Central CC, Nebraska) to a nucleus of young players that were forced to learn on the fly last season.
"We're an older, more-experienced team," Murphy said. "Adding some players that have other Division I experience has really helped, and it's raised the level of practice.
"You're talking about guys that have experience starting high-level games; you add that type of experience to your program it just helps bring the young guys along."
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Littles (6-1), Allen (6-3) and Harris (6-5) -- who began his college career at LaSalle -- give Murphy three athletic guards to play at an up-tempo pace. His backcourt options also include 6-3 junior Torry Johnson, 6-3 sophomore JoJo Anderson and 6-1 senior Kye De Laveaga.
Johnson missed all of last season with a knee injury after averaging 9.3 points a game as a sophomore. Anderson started six games as a freshman and averaged 7.4 points, and De Laveaga started 18 games and averaged 3.7 points.
Fuamba, 6-feet-9 and 230 pounds, was a junior-college All-American who adds some much-needed bulk to the front court. He joins a pair of veterans in 6-9 junior Isaiah Thomas and 6-8 junior Corey Brown, along with sophomores Brooks DeBisschop and Chris Bowling.
"Two guys who have taken giant leaps forward between their freshman and sophomore years are Brooks DeBisschop and Chris Bowling," Murphy said. "Offensively Chris has become a dynamic scorer after shooting a poor percentage last year as a freshman, and Brooks has just been an all-around really good inside post player."
The Lumberjacks open their season Friday in Tucson against Arizona, which appears primed to contend for a national championship. Road games at Arizona State and Kansas State follow over the next 10 days, along with a mid-December trip to play at South Florida.
"We want to challenge ourselves in the non-conference season," Murphy said. "The game that we have marked on our calendar is December 28, that's the Big Sky Conference opener. Everything up until that point is just preparing us for that moment. Whether it's Arizona, ASU, Kansas State, South Florida, all of those are going to be good tests along the way to see where we are."
