Greyhounds look to continue winning ways

ASU Mid-South Basketball poised for success in 2019-2020 season

sports@theeveningtimes.com

The Arkansas State University Mid-South Greyhounds men’s basketball team is already looking toward a return to the Dog House this fall.

SInce signing their first high school recruit of the season — the Greyhounds inked three-time All-State guard Kevin Fulton from Nettleton High School in Jonesboro to an NJCAA Letter of Intent and Scholarship Agreement — in May, the program has only gotten stronger.

Fulton (5’8”, 145 lbs.) led the Raiders to three consecutive 5A state tournament appearances on the way to earning All-State honors three years in a row. He led Nettleton in scoring three years in a row, and as a senior averaged 17 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals per game while shooting 52 percent from the field, 40 percent from the three-point line and 82 percent from the free throw line for Head Coach Mark McCord.

Fulton’s Other accolades include being named to the Arkansas Basketball Coaches Association Top 5 as one of the state’s top 5 players in the 5A classication, earning All-NEA Tournament honors three years in a row, and being named to the “Best Under the Sun” Team by the Jonesboro Sun newspaper.

Fulton will join a solid core of returnees and new recruits when the Greyhounds suit up this upcoming season.

The signings continued throughout the summer.

After picking up Fulton, the Greyhounds signed Kylon McCullough, a 6’4”, 185 pound shooter out of North Little Rock; teammates Jarius Sharp (6’5”, 190 lbs.) and Jared Smith (6’3”, 175 lbs.) out of Little Rock, and Juwon Clifton (6’3”, 170 lbs.) of Conway.

Rounding out the recruiting class, last month, transfer point guard J.T. Smith signed with Greyhounds after the Searcy native, a 6’2”, 180 pound shooting guard, opted to transfer from Kilgore College in Texas. Smith, who went to Kilgore to play football as a wide receiver and redshirted last year, chose to transfer to ASU Mid-South to resume his basketball career.

A four-sport letterman at Riverview High School located in Searcy, Arkansas, Smith established himself as one of the greatest athletes in school history by earning All-State honors in both football and basketball while helping the Raiders win the 4×100 relay at the state track meet.

The three-time All-State basketball star made an immediate impact for Head Coach T.J. Coleman, leading the Raiders to the state tournament as a sophomore and a senior while being named to the All-State Tournament Team on both occasions. Earning All-Conference honors all four years of high school, Smith averaged 21.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 3 steals per game as a senior, leading Riverview to a 26-10 overall record while going 12-4 in the 4A-2 conference.

Then in the state tournament semifinals against three-time state champion Baptist Prep, Riverview led by 1 with less than 4 seconds remaining before Kansas-signee Isaac Mc-Bride hit a 27-foot buzzer beater to end the Raiders’ season.

Smith has a history of reaching another level of offensive output in the playoffs. As a junior, he put up a career-high 45 points in a district tournament loss, and overall averaged 17.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2.5 steals per game.

“J.T. might be a oncein- a-lifetime player for a coach,” Coleman said. “He is very talented, selfless and coachable. His basketball IQ, court awareness, quickness, playmaking and scoring ability all make him a great player who is able to create his own shot, and he makes players around him better with his play-making ability, passing and unselfish play.”

“He’s a competitor and a winner — a clutch player.”

Smith joins five recruits and seven returnees as the Greyhounds lost only three sophomores from last season’s 22-9 team that won the program’s third NJCAA Region 2 Championship in a row.

The 2019-2020 campaign tips off two months from today. On Saturday, Oct.

6, the Greyhounds will be playing in the Mullen/ Mitchell Jamboree in Fort Worth, Texas. Then on Monday, Oct. 14, the team will make its first appearance of the season at the Dog House, taking on Southwest Tennessee Community College in a scrimmage game at 5 p.m., and the Greyhounds will cap their preseason exploits on Oct. 25-27 on the road, playing in Mississippi in the Blue Mountain

Jamboree.