Long story short: It came down to JUCO stud power forwards Torye Pelham and Tony Lewis. Short story long: Lewis is off the board.
Bloomington-Pantagraph beat writer Jim Benson reports one of the Midwest's worst-kept recruiting secrets as Lewis will join former teammate Osiris Eldridge and former Phillips High School (Chicago) head coach Paris Parham, who currently serves as an assistant on Tim Jankovich's staff at Illinois State.
Lewis said even though Southern had the scholarship space, he did not want to be buried on the depth chart:
“I think I might have a chance to start (for ISU). It’s something I can work on. Illinois State has a better academic program. Southern has two, three and four people at my position. I felt I could come to ISU and come in and play.”
Had Lewis chosen Carbondale over Bloomington-Normal, he would have been fighting freshman prep-school transfer Eugene Teague, Jr., and sophomores Nick Evans and Anthony Booker for playing time as the post presence. Despite his 6-foot-8-inch frame, Carlton Fay plays more like a "3" and is more of a matchup problem on the offensive end in the Valley as a tweener.
The $750,000 question in Carbondale is what will head coach Chris Lowery do with the last remaining scholarship.
C-Lo and his staff want to fill out this last schollie, as it would love to avoid being shorthanded at any point next season. Lowery could begrudgingly go back to the high school straits, but unless John Wall is walking through that door, the prospects immediate impact will be questioned by a fanbase expecting a JUCO standout to fill out its roster.
But with a boatload of talent coming out of Illinois high schools in 2010 and 2011, maybe rolling the scholarship over wouldn't be the worse thing in the world.
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