Supporting cast young, talented

Dukes' eight new players to mesh with veterans

It's a different year for the men's basketball team. After graduating a majority of its contributing players from last season, the Dukes of 2003-'04 are a young and inexperienced team at the college level.

JMU will enter this year picked by the Colonial Athletic Association to finish toward the bottom of its conference, due in part to the fact that its young team is not well-known.

Having a roster that includes six true freshmen, the Dukes are going to look for seniors forward/guard Dwayne Broyles and guard Chris Williams to lead and set examples for the newcomers, according to coach Sherman Dillard.

Freshman forward Chris Cathlin most likely is going to have an earlier impact on the team than any other new player, as he already has started in the Dukes' exhibition game against EA Sports Southeast All-Stares a week ago. "When we got a commitment from [Cathlin], I felt that he would be the surprise in this [freshman] class," Dillard said. "That's no disrespect to anybody else in this class, but he was just under the radar.

"He didn't get a lot of exposure in high school and on the [Amateur Athletic Union] circuit," Dillard said. "But, I saw right away that he had talent — he's a good leaper, [has a] good shooting touch, and he can floor the ball a little bit for a [6-foot-7-inch] kid."

Ryan Brimley, a freshman center from Auburn, N.Y., is the biggest player the Dukes have, but his progress will be measured by how he adjusts to the level of collegiate basketball.

Dillard thinks that his 6-foot-10-inch, 240-pound freshman has the skills to help the team, but has suffered some setbacks with early injuries during practice.

"[Brimley] continues to work hard, but we'd like to see him get a little meaner down low," Dillard said. He believes that the toughness will come with experience and he is impressed with Brimley's shooting touch.

After losing backup guard Wes Miller, who transferred to the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill during the summer, the recruitment of freshman guard Ray Barbosa proved to be a blessing in disguise.

The 6-foot-2-inch Barbosa hails from Allentown, Pa., and likely will see significant playing time at the guard spot as he can hit the outside shot, according to Dillard.

"We recruited [Barbosa] because we felt like we needed immediate help at the guard spot," Dillard said. "He has shown us that he can play at either of the positions — the one or the two spots for us. He had an outstanding high school career and, so far, he has done everything we have asked of him.

"[Barbosa] has got ball-handling skills and can penetrate [the paint]. We are very pleased with his play thus far," Dillard added.

Revamping the frontcourt for the Dukes was a necessity, as they lost three solid post players at the end of last year. JMU was able to bring in both freshmen center Eddie Greene-Long and forward Cavell Johnson to help bolster a short — by basketball standards — yet athletic bunch of players.

"Cavell is probably the most athletic of the group," Dillard said. "He runs extremely well and has a really nice shooting touch out to about 18 feet."

Not only are there six new freshman players for Dillard to teach things to, of the 16 men on the roster, three are walk-ons.

Sophomore guard Baher Elgibali, freshman guard Chris Clarke and junior guard John Goodman all made the team this fall.

"[Goodman] is a good shooter," Dillard said. "That is one of the reasons we kept him. He works hard, and gives us somebody on the [second] team that we have to guard in practice."

At the moment, Dillard has Clarke, a true freshman walk-on, slated as being the backup point guard to Williams.

"Baher is a good shooter also," Dillard said. "He's one of those guys that the players had a chance to play against during the fall period.

"Broyles came to me and said, 'Coach, you ought to take a good look at this guy (Elgibali).'"

Dillard believes that all the newcomers have the potential to help the team in one way or another, but he wants to see them all get tougher and build their stamina, which will come with experience.