Nutt adds needed height to roster

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team has added more size for the 2009-2010 season.

First-year Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said Wednesday that 6-foot-8, 220-pound forward Rae-Vonn Banks will join the Redhawks as an invited walk-on. He is enrolled in classes, which begin Monday.

Banks, who will be a sophomore in eligibility, played his freshman season at Missouri State-West Plains Junior College.

Banks appeared in all 31 games for the Grizzlies and made five starts. He averaged 5.5 points and 4.1 rebounds while leading the squad with 20 blocks. He shot 54.7 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from the free-throw line.

"I am really proud and excited for Rae-Vonn to join our program," Nutt said. "I really believe his future, his upside is tremendous.

"We zeroed in on him coming in to be a walk-on, but we feel like he'll have a chance to earn a scholarship. We really went after him. He can help us. We feel like we helped ourselves."

Banks, a native of Fayetteville, N.C., might be Southeast's tallest player. Three others on the Redhawks' current 12-man roster are listed as 6-7.

But Nutt said returning senior Israel Kirk "might be about 6-8. He and Rae-Vonn might be about the same [height]."

One of those 6-7 players, Leon Powell, likely will miss the season after suffering a torn ACL during a pickup game in St. Louis several weeks ago.

Powell, who played the past two years at perennial national junior college power Indian Hills in Iowa, was Nutt's top signee for this year.

While Banks doesn't have Powell's offensive skills, he helps fill a void created by Powell's injury.

"When Leon went down, that put things at red alert. We really had to search and try to find a guy to come in," Nutt said. "Rae-Vonn will be a big, big part of our program. He's very athletic and he blocks shots.

"Defense, rebounding and blocking shots are his strengths, probably in that order."

New players

Southeast's other player listed as 6-7 is Eric McCrary, a transfer from Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Mo.

Kirk and McCrary both are listed as weighing 230 pounds, the heaviest on the current roster.

Banks is the eighth newcomer on the Redhawks' current roster. He played at Missouri State-West Plains last season along with 5-11 point guard Anthony Allison, a Southeast signee.

Southeast's other junior college signee is 6-2 combo guard Sam Pearson from Moberly, Mo.

The Redhawks' other two signees are incoming freshmen, 6-5 wing LaQuentin Miles from Jacksonville, Ark., and 6-2 combo guard Marland Smith from Little Rock, Ark.

Also previously announced as joining the Redhawks will be Nutt's son Lucas, a 5-11 freshman point guard who graduated from Jonesboro (Ark.) High School. Lucas Nutt also will be an invited walk-on at Southeast.

"Walk-on positions are crucial to us, especially this year," coach Nutt said. "These are players we invited to walk on. They will play a big part in our basketball team.

"We are just not adding names to the roster just to fill a roster spot."

Returning players

Returning players, in addition to Kirk, are 6-6 senior forward LaMont Russell, 6-6 junior forward Jajuan Maxwell and 6-4 senior wing Johnny Hill.

Nutt said he expects Southeast's current 12-man roster to expand by the time classes begin Monday. He said the Redhawks still have some scholarship offers on the table.

Southeast currently has 10 scholarship players. The NCAA maximum is 13, but the Redhawks are limited to 12 for the 2009-2010 academic year because of NCAA sanctions.

"We hope to add some more players by the end of the weekend. We're waiting on some decisions to be made," Nutt said. "I read and heard that we wouldn't have used that 13th scholarship anyway. That's not true.

"I'm excited about the reception we're getting when we talk to players. There are still players out there, and we need all the scholarships we can get."