ATHENS – A record sixth basketball player is coming Georgia’s way via transfer as the Bulldogs welcomed junior college guard Kario Oquendo on Wednesday.
Oquendo, a 6-foot-4 high-jumping shooter from Florida Southwestern State, chose the Bulldogs over Oregon and Marquette, according to basketball recruiting analysts. He’ll have three seasons of eligibility at Georgia.
Oquendo, who is from Titusville, Fla., averaged 13.5 points as a freshman at FSS. But the key stat for him is a 55.4% field-goal percentage, including 40.3% on 3-pointers. Georgia was one of the SEC’s poorest perimeter-shooting teams last season.
Oquendo’s commitment comes one day after the Bulldogs landed another junior college standout in small forward Dalen Ridgnal of Cowley College in Kansas. He averaged 21.1 points as a junior-college sophomore and also shot 38.7% from beyond the arc as he led his team to the national junior college championship game.
Together, that gives the Bulldogs six players joining the team by way of transfer. Jabri Abdur-Rahim (Virginia), Noah Baumann (USC), Bralen Bridges (Illinois-Chicago) and Jailyn Ingram (Florida Atlantic) are coming from Division I programs.
Georgia also has three high school players joining the team in 3-star prospects Tyrone Baker of Missouri City, Texas (6-9 forward) Camron McDowell of McEachern (6-5 guard) and Christian Wright of Atlanta’s Skills Factory (6-3 guard. Including returnees in guard K.D. Johnson, forwards Jonathan Ned, Josh Taylor and Tyron McMillan, that gives the Bulldogs 12 players on scholarship for next season.
Georgia had three starters and six players overall transfer off last season’s 14-12 squad, the third under coach Tom Crean. There is no word yet on whether any of the Bulldogs three graduate transfers (Andrew Garcia, Justin Kier and P.J. Horne) will take advantage of the NCAA’s COVID-season of eligibility and return for next season.
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