Middle Tennessee signs two

Middle Tennessee will welcome seven new faces to its basketball program next year, with the final two becoming official on Wednesday when junior college standouts Rod Emanuel and James Washington signed letters of intent with the Blue Raiders.

Emanuel, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Gainesville (Fla.) Sante Fe Community College, provides MT another talented scoring option from the perimeter.

Washington, a 5-foot-11 point guard from Ottumwa (Ia.) Indian Hills Community College, will have a chance to step in and compete right away for the starting point guard spot.

MT head coach Kermit Davis is excited about both signings, especially considering Washington has playing experience at the Division I level, where he started his college career at Western Illinois.

"(Washington and Emanuel) can really shoot it and that was a top priority for our whole class, especially at the guard spot,' Davis said. "James Washington is just a true point guard. What I love about him is that he has done it at our level. He averaged 10.5 points a game at Western Illinois as a freshman and led the Summit League in 3-point field goal percentage, so the fact that he's done it before makes me feel good."

Emanuel may not have the top level experience that Washington has, but the talented scoring guard has reaped the benefits of playing in a very high caliber junior college basketball environment.

"Rod has really good size," Davis said. "He was one of the best junior college shooters that we saw. What we like about him is that he can play both guard spots. He was national junior college player of the week one week and he was first team all region in the state of Florida and there is some really good junior college basketball there. He's another guy that can shoot it."

Emanuel and Washington help to form a trio of junior college signees for MT in this class, joining Garden City (Kan.) Community College forward Trevor Ottley, who signed in the early period in November.

MT's four high school signees include John David Little (Olive Branch, Miss.), David Murray (Leeds, Ala.), James Gallman (Knoxville, Tenn.), and Jontaveous Sulton (Yazoo City, Miss.).

Multiple first year players will have to make immediate impacts for the Blue Raiders to compete for the Sun Belt championship next season.

While Davis is very excited about the high school prospects making their way to Murfreesboro, he understands that Washington and Emanuel will be at the forefront of the discussion when it comes to newcomers needing to step up.

Both prospects are a year older than most junior college players. Washington redshirted his freshman season at Western Illinois after suffering an injury early in the 2006-07 season. Emanuel redshirted his first year at Santa Fe to work on transitioning to a guard spot after playing post in high school.

"I think both of those guys can come in and earn great minutes for us," Davis said. "They are both third year guys which I think is a plus for us since we don't have a lot of experience at guard. You sign junior college players to try to fit a need.

"I'm still very excited about the freshmen we have signed, and we still have DeMario (Williams) and Antwaun (Boyd). We need some more depth in the backcourt and (Washington and Emanuel) need to come in and play well."