Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Montana State Signs Transfer Forward Eric Norman

Montana State's busy offseason continued on Monday as they signed SMU transfer forward Eric Norman, as well as losing assistant coach George Pfeifer. Norman will join the MSU program as a sophomore, and presumably (though not confirmed), he will have to sit out a season.

Norman was a solid prep player, averaging 19 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists per game as a senior. However, he only played in nine games last season for SMU, and decided to transfer after the hiring of Larry Brown.

“This is a great addition for our program for a lot of reasons,” Huse said. “He is a great kid and I like that he brings more size to our front line, and since we don't have much in the way of Division I experience on the front line adding Eric enhances that group. He was heavily recruited out of high school and he is a late bloomer physically, which we will benefit from.”
Two other items of note regarding Norman.

- He is listed in the Montana State article as being 6'9'' and 220 pounds, which would make him a legit power forward, size-wise. However, he is listed on SMU's website as being 6'6'', 195 pounds, which obviously is a pretty substantial difference. Huse calls him a late bloomer, but that would certainly be a lot of late blooming.

- As Gidal Kaiser notes, it brings up a question on who is not going to have a scholarship. The NCAA limit is 13 scholarships, and as of now there are 14 known players with scholarships. The rumors are that either Jeff Budinich (who has been in the news lately) may be taken off scholarship, or that Blake Brumwell (who sees fairly limited action and seems to be buried on the depth chart) may transfer to a smaller school. It will be interesting to see how that shakes out.

EDIT: For point number two, Gidal Kaiser has confirmed that Jeff Budinich will not be on athletic scholarship.

EDIT 2: According to Area Codes Basketball, Norman will be eligible to play right away.

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