Added depth for Brady, ASU

— In a quiet moment after a semifinal loss to North Texas in last season’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament, Arkansas State men’s basketball Coach John Brady made a soft-toned declaration.

The Red Wolves, worn down from three games in three days, featured a six-man rotation. Depth, though, was an issue.

“I need to go find players,” Brady said.

As he prepares for his fourth season in Jonesboro, Brady has overhauled the ASU roster with eight newcomers to blend with six returning players — including four starters — on a team that could contend with North Texas atop the Sun Belt Conference West Division.

“We didn’t have much off the bench,” Brady said. “We were subbing a football player in the post, but we’ve managed to address that.”

Brady, who is 47-45 at ASU, was speaking about undersized forward Darion Griswold, then a 6-5, 240-pound redshirt freshman tight end on the Red Wolves football team who averaged 4.6 points and 2.5 minutes in 13.4 minutes per game in reserve duty on the basketball.

In 34 games, Brady’s starting rotation ate up 77.4 percent of the team’s minutes, and each averaged at least 32 minutes per game. When the bench was called on, it produced just 11.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.

So, Brady and newly hired assistant coach Corey Barker hit the spring recruiting trail hard.

In the lane, ASU brings in freshman forward Kris Brown, a 6-7, 247-pound recruit from Fort Worth, along with Seth Kisler, a 6-8, 198-pound transfer from Paris (Texas) Junior College.

But the centerpiece is Houston transfer Kendrick Washington, a 6-7, 274-pound junior who sat out last season and is expected to replace senior Malcoln Kirkland.

While Kirkland, who averaged 12.1 points and 6.4 rebounds last season, was a bruising presence on the low block, he struggled to make plays out of double teams or show extended shooting range.

Brady said Kirkland, who butted heads with Houston Coach James Dickey, is a “much better playmaker” with face-up ability out to 15 feet and “a much better passer.”

“I didn’t want Malcoln to ever pass it,” Brady said. “If he did, it was usually a turnover. With Kendrick, if there’s a double-team, or somebody cutting to the basket, he’s a much better passer in the post.”

The distinction between Kirkland and Washington underscores an emphasis for Brady: Cutting down turnovers.

Last season, ASU ranked last in the Sun Belt and 254th nationally by turning the ball over on 21.6 percent of its offensive possessions. In a season where the Red Wolves were 4-7 in games decided by five points or less, those missed chances for points proved critical.

Worse, four of those losses came in the game’s final five minutes, while four others were Sun Belt games where ASU held a lead heading into the closing stretch.

That turned out to be the difference between finishing 14-20 and 18-16, and winding up with a 10-6 record in the West Division. That mark would have produced a firstround bye in Sun Belt Tournament and a critical days rest for a short-staffed team.

“That alone will lend itself to winning two or three more games,” Brady said.

That explains why freshman guard Cameron Golden, a 6-1, 160-pound point guard rated a three-star prospect by Rivals, may replace Ed Townsel in the starting lineup. Townsel, a 6-0, 166-pound senior, averaged 3.04 assists per game last season, but he also committed 3.11 turnovers per game.

So, Golden, who received 12 scholarship offers, including ones from Michigan, Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, should pair with senior guards Trey Finn and Marcus Hooten.

Sports, Pages 30 on 10/17/2012

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