Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team signs WKU transfer Adeoye

~ The 6-foot-7 power forward is a transfer from Western Kentucky

It's unsure when Southeast Missouri State's latest signee Aaron Adeoye will be able to play basketball for the Redhawks, but whenever that ends up being coach Dickey Nutt is confident that he's going to make an impact.

In fact, Nutt is already setting some goals for the transfer from Western Kentucky, whose signing was announced by the university on Tuesday.

"If I didn't think Aaron could be the impact that I feel like he can make on our team, if I didn't think he could be an all-conference player we would not have pursued him," Nutt said. "But I think, and I feel like, and I'll go out on a limb here and put the pressure on him and us -- he's that good of a player. We didn't feel like we could pass him up."

The 6-foot-7 power forward from Marion, Ill., who will have one remaining year of eligibility, will have to sit out a year unless he is able to receive a waiver.

"He is going to apply for a waiver because of some family issues that he has that makes him have to get back close to home to be with his mom," Nutt said. "I don't know that there's any guarantee to all that, but that's certainly something that he's going to go after.

"We would certainly welcome his eligibility if that were to be granted, but we're prepared nonetheless for him to be with us regardless, and I just feel like he's a big part of our team even though it will be short-lived -- two years max. But we just felt like knowing his background and knowing the type of player that he could be for us, we just felt like we had to get back involved and we couldn't pass on this."

Southeast recruited Adeoye out of John A. Logan College in Carterville, Ill., where he averaged 14.3 points and eight rebounds and was named a third-team All-American.

"When we lost him to Western Kentucky we basically forgot about him," Nutt said. "But when it appeared that he was going to transfer and get back closer to home because of some family issues, and some illness, we got involved again."

Adeoye started 15 games at Western Kentucky last season and played in 32 games. He averaged 3.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and his 15 blocks were second on the team.

"He has probably a 7-foot long reach and he's 6-foot-7 and almost 225-30 pounds and can really move around and score and he's not afraid to bang," Nutt said. "And he played for a good team."

The Hilltoppers finished second in the Sun Belt Conference and compiled a 20-12 record.

"We need, obviously, a guy to go alongside of Nino Johnson, alongside of Josh Langford and obviously Jarekious Bradley and now David Williams," Nutt said. "It just kind of adds to our team and to our arsenal in terms of front-line players. They're hard to come by and in a perfect world, we love freshmen. But sometimes what we want and what we get are two different things, and so we kind of have to mix and match.

"But the thing that throws him over the hump and over the wall, to me, is his character, just the type of person he is and his academic performance. Those things right there are going to help my young guys."

Adeoye played 30 games as a freshman at Ball State and averaged 3.5 points and 4.2 rebounds a game en route to earning Mid-American Conference All-Freshman team honors before transferring to John A. Logan.

"We're expecting big things from him," Nutt said. "I'll say this and I'll say it again, not to be redundant but if we didn't think he could be the impact both on and off the floor with our team, and we didn't think he was a piece of this puzzle that we need, we certainly wouldn't have done it."