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Martin announces roster changes at Kstate

May 06, 2011

{MANHATTAN, Kan.} — Kansas State head coach Frank Martin announced several roster changes on Friday with the signing of four players to National Letters of Intent as well as the transfer of two others.

Junior college transfers Jeremy Jones (Chicago, Ill./Seward County [Kan.] Community College) and James Watson (Atoka, Okla./Cowley [Kan.] College), Division I transfer Omari Lawrence (Bronx, N.Y./St. John’s) and high school standout Angel Rodriguez (Miami, Fla./Krop) will join the Wildcats for the 2011-12 season.  Jones and Watson will both be juniors in the fall, while Lawrence will be a sophomore and Rodriguez a true freshman.   

Sophomore guards Juevol Myles and Nick Russell have been released from their athletic scholarships and will transfer to other institutions.  Both leave K-State with two years of eligibility remaining in their careers. 

“We are excited to welcome these players to K-State,” said Martin.  “Each addresses a need for the coming year and continues to make us a deeper and more athletic team.  Both James and Jeremy bring tremendous experience at the junior college level, while Omari, like James, has already experienced the highs and lows of playing at the Division I level.  Angel is truly one of the elite high school point guards in the country and will be able to diversify our offense.  He is not only an elite scorer, but he really knows how to involve others on the offensive end.”  

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A 6-foot-2, 165-pound shooting guard from Chicago, Ill., Jones comes to K-State from Seward County Community College in Liberal, Kan., where he earned third team NJCAA All-America honors as a sophomore in 2010-11.  He helped the Saints to a Jayhawk West Conference title and a berth in the Region VI Championship game, where they lost to Coffeyville Community College, 73-69.  A starter in 30 of 34 games, Jones averaged a team-best 18.6 points on 48.9 percent shooting, including 37.2 percent from 3-point range, with 4.5 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 32.3 minutes per game.  He paced the Saints in nearly every offensive category, including scoring, field goals, 3-point field goals, free throws and assists.  He scored in double figures in 32 games, including 15 20-point contests.

He was named conference most valuable player as well as first team All-Region VI and all-league.  

Jones played his freshman season at Western Texas College in Snyder, Texas, where he averaged 13.4 points in 2009-10.  He came to the Westerners after a standout prep career at Simeon High School in Chicago, which is the same alma mater as the Chicago Bulls’ star Derrick Rose.  He averaged 21 points, four rebounds, four assists and one block as a senior in 2008-09 en route to earning all-conference honorable mention all-state honors. 

He selected K-State over a number of scholarship offers, including Arizona State, Houston and South Florida.

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Lawrence continues K-State’s pipeline to the Empire State where the Bronx, N.Y., native played one season at St. John’s before sitting out the 2010-11 season to take classes at Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kan.  He is the sixth player from New York to sign for the Wildcats in the last five years, which includes former Red Storm player Jermaine Maybank (2006-07; Bronx), Curtis Kelly (2009-11; Bronx), Jordan Henriquez-Roberts (2009-current; Port Chester), Devon Peterson (2010-current; Brooklyn) and Shane Southwell (2010-current; Harlem).

A 6-foot-4, 220-pound guard, Lawrence helped St. John’s to a 17-16 overall record and a trip to the NIT as a true freshman in 2009-10 under former head coach Norm Roberts.  He saw action in 25 games as a rookie, averaging 2.5 points on 34.7 percent shooting, including 33.3 percent from 3-point range, with 1.5 rebounds, 0.7 steals and 0.5 assists in 9.3 minutes per game.  He appeared in 10 Big East contests, averaging 2.4 points in 7.4 minutes per outing.  He scored in 19 games, including a season-best eight points against Villanova on Jan. 23, 2010.

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