Less than a week after being introduced as NC A&T men’s basketball coach, Monte Ross has his first pair of commitments.
NC A&T picked up a commitment from local guard Julius Reese Jr. on Sunday and another from former Division II star Jason Murphy on Monday.
Reese is a 6’4 guard who played his high school ball at Greensboro Day. He is the son of Julius Reese, a former UNC wide receiver and assistant football coach at Winston-Salem State University. His mother, Kimberly Fair Reese, is a WSSU alumnus and long-time employee of the university.
“I’ve known Coach Ross for a long time and he recruited me when I was at Glenn (High School) and he was at Delaware, so it’s great that it’s worked out like this,” Reese told the Winston-Salem Journal. “And I can’t say enough about A&T and their academics, their history in athletics and the great atmosphere on campus. It was a perfect fit all the way around.”
Murphy was a standout at Frostburg College, a 6’9 post player who started his career at NJIT. He averaged 15.9 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per game last season, scoring in double-figures 18 of the 19 games he played while shooting 58.1 percent from the field. Murphy also recorded 10 double-doubles on the season.
Recruiting was certainly a key topic of discussion at Ross’ introductory media session as NC A&T head coach last week.
“The biggest thing is, and I’ll say this to anybody – if you want to be a good coach, get good players. If you want to be a great coach, get great players. It’s not about the Xs and Os, it’s about the Jimmy and Joes. So we have to get out there and hit that recruiting trail and get some good players to be able to compete in this league,” Ross told HBCU Gameday at the time.
“It’s important for us to hit the ground running. So we have a whole list of guys that we are targeting, have contacted and we’ll get them on campus in the next couple of weeks and we’ll see what happens.”