Troy hoops picks up transfer from Alabama

Troy’s men’s basketball program finalized its 2009-10 roster with an SEC transfer.

Yamene Coleman, who has spent the last four seasons at Alabama, left the basketball team there right before he graduated with a degree in criminal justice in May.

Coleman, who redshirted his first year in Tuscaloosa, will play his final season of eligibility at Troy this year.

Troy head coach Don Maestri confirmed the transfer Sunday and said the NCAA granted the waiver that allows him to play immediately.

He’ll be able to do this because he’s enrolling in a graduate program at Troy that isn’t offered at Alabama — sport and fitness management.

“There’s been (a transfer to) UAB from Vanderbilt and one to Southern Miss that’s all been approved in the last three weeks,” Maestri said. “We found out he was going to graduate, and we know most of the Auburn and Alabama kids anyway. With a new coach, sometimes changes are made. When we found out he was not going to come back, we called up there and he got his release from there.”

Troy’s most recent transfer from Alabama came in wing player Justin Jonus, who scored 13.9 points per game his senior year in 2007-08.
Coleman will fill an immediate void in the frontcourt for the Trojans, who went 19-13 last year and a surprising 14-4 in Sun Belt play, finishing third in the league.

Starter Tom Jervis and backup Mario Telfair have graduated, leaving Coleman to compete for minutes at the center position with juniors Bernard Toombs and Trayce Macon.

Both Macon and Toombs redshirted last year.

“The position is wide open for him to step in there,” Maestri said. “It’s a break for us. It gives us a guy who has played in one of the top leagues in the country for three years. We’ve seen him on TV. He’s a very good defender and a good athlete.”

Coleman is 6-foot-9 and around 240 pounds and bigger than most Trojan forwards of the past few years. He’s a true center and won’t be asked to step away from the basket.

He scored 3.7 points per game and pulled down 3.8 rebounds per game as a reserve last year for Alabama.

“He wasn’t asked to score a lot there because they had other scorers,” Maestri said. “We’ll be looking to get it inside to him and we think he’ll score some buckets for us.”

Troy returns four starters from last year — all-conference players Brandon Hazzard, Richard Delk and Michael Vogler and forward Antywan Jones.
Maestri compared Coleman’s situation to Vogler, the point guard that was at Chipola Junior College in Florida and barely played, but practiced year-round with other Division I signees.

“It’s the same way with Yamene,” Maestri said. “Not only did he play Florida, Auburn, Kentucky, Tennessee, but he practiced every day against guys with NBA potential, guys like (Richard) Hendrix (and Jermareo Davidson).”

Coleman completes Troy’s 13-man scholarship roster. Junior college transfer guards Vernon Taylor and Levan Patsatsia are eligible this season, while transfer guard Will Weathers (UCF) and Flynn Clayman (Colorado State) will sit out this year.

Maestri didn’t rule out redshirting one of next year’s players, but didn’t mention names. He said the 2009-10 schedule is almost complete, but it will be a tough one. The Trojans will have a stretch of eight straight road games, including Florida, Auburn, UAB and Houston.