Banks seeks to fill gaps

 
Around this time last year the Southern University Board of Supervisors approved Roman Banks to become the new head coach of a basketball program that needed to be revived.
Jaguar fans, the coaching staff and even some of the players probably didn’t expect to have the season they had, finishing second in the SWAC and earning their first winning season since 2005.
But with the end of a dream season now coming to reality, the Jaguars have to replace two key components from their successful season in Quinton Doggett and Fredrick Coleman, along with APR issues limiting Southern in scholarships.
Doggett ended his college career in a movie style fashion scoring the game point with a dunk against a team that in previous years had never beaten Texas Southern.  Doggett earned first team all SWAC honors and led the SWAC in rebounds averaging 7.8 per game.
Coach Banks said that Coleman wasn’t a great scorer but gave 100 percent contributions to the team, and proved his worth being a vocal leader on the team.
With the loss of Doggett and Coleman, the Jags will be looking for help not only on the inside but also finding someone to be effective from the perimeter spot.
“Where we are right now, we can’t miss anybody,” said head coach Roman Banks. “We need a player to come in and we are going to need him to be a can’t miss guy, because we don’t have the scholarship numbers for growth and we need people to come in and play right away.”
With the latest APR scores coming out in April, Banks and his staff are anxiously waiting for the NCAA to give further consideration about receiving more scholarships to help further improve the team, but Banks thinks the student’s have shown significant improvements in the classroom.
“We dedicate three weeks to all academics to allow them to catch up, making sure that we are stable, everybody is at study hall and completing any make up work,” Banks said.
The standard score for APR is 950, and in 2009 southern scored 852 banning them from post-season play this past season and they are on a three-year cloud.
Once the players have caught up with their academics, Banks said that they will begin their off season weight program, to get bigger, stronger, and faster and after spring break the team will finish up individual workouts to help the current guys improve.
​ “Because we had a pretty successful season this year its just tougher going into next year,” Banks said. “The two seniors played well and we need a player like that and we need to add a couple of people just in case somebody is not ready to contribute.”
The Jaguars have already made additions signing Yondarius Johnson, a 6’4 180 pound shooting guard out of Pearl River Community College.
Johnson averaged a little over 14 points per game and will have the opportunity to help the Jaguars next year.
“We had a good basketball season this year, I don’t want them to maximize it times two because we still have a lot of issues going on,” Banks said.