Men’s Basketball Team Fortifies Its Roster With New Players
With only two players—guards Abdias “Speedy” Carcamo and Matthew Khoury—expected to return from last season, the Miami Dade College men’s basketball team was anticipating a roster overhaul.
The retooling has started. In the past two months, the Sharks announced the signing of seven players—five guards and two forwards—from Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and the Republic of Sudan. A few more additions are expected.
“We are bringing a lot of experience but also bringing some youth that are really good players,” said Sharks Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach Dillon “DJ” Jenkins about the incoming recruits.
Joining the Sharks’ front court will be Jamichael Stillwell, a six-foot-seven forward from Atlanta, Georgia who was the most valuable player at the High School Platinum Division Championship this past March with the Elevation Prep basketball team and Ibrahim Wattara, a six-foot-five forward who played at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New York last season. Wattara played in 25 games for the Knights, averaging 4.4 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.
Boosting the backcourt will be Dylan “Mouse” Edwards, a six-foot-two point guard from Maryland who played at South Kent School—a post-graduate school in Connecticut—last year and Charles Temple, a six-foot-two guard who most recently played at Bella Vista College Preparatory in Arizona. He has been practicing with the Sharks since January.
The three other guards who are new to the Sharks’ rotation are Mayoum Mayoum, a six-foot-four shooting guard who was born in the Republic of Sudan but who grew up in Australia and is transferring from Loyola Marymount University in California, DaSean Lecque, a six-foot-two point guard from New Jersey who played last year at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, Arizona, and Deval Harrell, a six-foot-one point guard from Cleveland who averaged 21.2 points at Bryant & Stratton College in Ohio.
“I am excited. I have already been in contact with some of the guys. We are ready to just come in and get through the work,” said Edwards who will be majoring in early childhood education. “We want to bring a championship [to] MDC.”
This year’s recruiting boon is a far cry from last year when the Sharks got a late start in building their roster after head coach Jorge Fernandez was hired in August and Jenkins officially came on board in October.
The Sharks won eight of their first 14 games but finished the season with a 10-17 record, losing their last six games. Guard D’Monte Brown led the team in scoring with a 16.2 average. Forward Khalil Turner, who was selected to the All-Southern Conference First-Team, averaged 14. 2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game.
Brown committed to play at Minnesota State University and Turner will play at Morgan State University in Maryland.
The Sharks’ top returner player this year is Carcamo who was hampered by an Achilles injury last year that limited him to eight games. But he showed great promise during that stretch, averaging 14 points and 3.8 rebounds.
This year, Miami Dade College starts the regular season on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. versus Victory Rock Prep at the Theodore R. Gibson Health Center, 11011 S.W., at Kendall Campus. The team then travels to Cincinnati, Ohio to compete in the Griffin Elite Classic from Nov. 4-6.
“We are really looking forward to that, [to] show the country on a big stage who we are,” Jenkins said.
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