Fleming may xfer to JUCO

[MeanGreen61]

Mean Green's Flemings might transfer to a JUCO

Forward would have to sit at UNT

10:44 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 23, 2006

By Brett Vito/Staff Writer

Roderick Flemings’ journey at North Texas could end up including a detour.

The former Oklahoma State forward has discussed the possibility of transferring to a junior college for the upcoming school year with UNT’s coaching staff, head coach Johnny Jones said Wednesday.

Flemings would have to sit out the upcoming season at UNT as a transfer, but would be able to play on the junior college level. Flemings would have two years of eligibility remaining if he transferred back to UNT or another Division I school following a year at a junior college.

“He wants to play this year and continue to work on his academics,” Jones said. “We want him to have the best chance to be successful.”

Jones said several junior colleges have shown interest in signing Flemings, who was unavailable for comment.

Jones said he expected to know what Flemings’ plans are by Sunday.

Landing Flemings was seen as a huge recruiting coup for UNT back in May when the Mean Green signed him to a national letter of intent. Flemings was widely considered to be one of the top 50 players in the country following his senior year at DeSoto in 2004-05, but has struggled to capitalize on his considerable talent since.

Flemings signed with OSU out of high school, but spent just one season with the Cowboys before he was dismissed from the team after averaging just 3.1 points a game in 28 outings.

Flemings eventually landed at UNT, where he said he was looking forward to a fresh start. He took classes in Denton over the summer in an effort to be eligible for the 2007-08 season.

If Flemings stays at UNT and resumes his career with the Mean Green, he will have not played a significant role on a team in two years.

Flemings is one of seven transfers who were expected to play for UNT in the next two seasons. That number has started to dwindle. Jones announced earlier last week that Curtis Muse, a 6-9 forward from Mineral Area (Mo.) Community College, did not meet NCAA eligibility requirements and will not play for the Mean Green next season.

Briefly …

Richland College coach Chuck Taylor has interviewed at UNT for a job as an assistant coach. Jones said he planned to fill the opening in the next few days.

[NT80]

Flemings would have two years of eligibility remaining if he transferred back to UNT or another Division I school following a year at a junior college.

Landing Flemings was seen as a huge recruiting coup for UNT back in May when the Mean Green signed him to a national letter of intent.

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So, he signed in May with UNT. If he goes to a JC could he then sign with another school after that or would it require a release from UNT?

[Harry]

Ouch.

[untbowler]

geez another great recruiting job by JJ.

[e-bone ver2.awesome]

“He wants to play this year and continue to work on his academics,” Jones said. “We want him to have the best chance to be successful.”

He took classes in Denton over the summer in an effort to be eligible for the 2007-08 season.

Could it be that he needs to go to a JUCO in order to become eligible for 07-08?

[edcollopy]

i think they want him to do the jc route so it won't be a 2 full years w/o playing games and it will also be easier to remain elegible at a JC.

[eeally]

sounds like a plan but could bite us in the ...

[e-bone ver2.awesome]

I seriously doubt that Fleming could go to another school after he plays for a JUCO, or JJ wouldn't let him do it. He can't be so unhappy with the few months he's been here to want to leave already. Isn't this the same thing that Demario Thomas did? He wasn't eligible to play, so he signed like a secondary letter of intent to play at a JUCO until he became eligible? It sounds like Fleming is doing the same thing, but in order to get to play as well as maintain eligibility.

Does anyone know for sure about this?

[GrandGreen]

I doubt that if Fleming is as good as advertised, NT would ever want him to go to a Juco if it could be avoided. It is just too big of a risk, there is no guarantee that if he excelled at the juco level that he would sign again with NT. There appears to be a problem that has developed with Fleming.

It seems the basketball program is falling apart. This situation plus the failure of Muse to qualify and having an incomming recruit that has not played in two years, Jackson, plus the apparent termination of Coach Steadman are all bad signs for JJ's program.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

It's hard to make much of an argument against anything that GrandGreen said except the only change in the situation from a month ago is the loss of Muse.

Flemings would not have played this year regardless. It's true that he would lose a year of eligibility but he could keep his game up with regular competition. IF he came back, he would probably be a better player than if he just practices and shoots around in Denton.

I never have cared about Jackson and wondered why JJ chose him, especially because of his lack of playing time. That situation wouldn't change even with Muse and Flemings except to push him farther back on the bench.

I don't know the reason for the firing (at least that's the way it looks) of Jai Steadman but I have the feeling that it was for cause. Probably nothing serious but something that may not have been altogether above board.

Based on his first year, Bell seemed like a find but last year was rather a mediocre year, in spite of winning the playoff. With Brown gone, we could be hurting at point.

On the plus side, most of his transfers...Johnson, Hines, Davis and hopefully, Wooden will be steals. Sturns, arguably our best player, has decided to return and that should be a good thing.

I don't think that recruiting or retention will be JJs downfall. Rather, it should be the coaching. He has assembled talent similar to what Trilli was able to recurit and we all know VTs fate.