The Coastal Carolina men's basketball program received a signed national letter of intent from junior college transfer Charles Ashford on Monday, rounding out its 2011 recruiting class.
Ashford, a 6-foot-1 guard from Vincennes University in Indiana, was named a NJCAA honorable-mention all-American last season after averaging 12.9 points, 7.1 assists and 4.2 rebounds while leading his team to an 18-13 record.
"What we like about him is he's got the ability to distribute the ball, and he's got a good assist-to-turnover ratio, but he shoots the ball really well," CCU coach Cliff Ellis said. "... I feel like he'll make an immediate impact, and [we're] just very excited about having him."
Ashford started his college basketball career at Southeastern Illinois College -- where he was a teammate of fellow CCU signee William Kirksey -- but he opted to move to Vincennes after one season to follow former Southeastern Illinois coach Todd Franklin.
Franklin said the move probably didn't help Ashford's recruiting stock as the guard had made quite a splash on the national scene after a strong postseason run as a freshman and might have built on that more had he stayed with Southeastern Illinois.
"I think Coastal is getting a really good player and is benefitting from that somewhat," Franklin said.
Franklin describes Ashford as an "old-school" pass-first guard with a decent shot, a good pull-up game and deceptive athleticism.
"He has really good vision," Franklin said. "He's played a ton of minutes. He's played very high level junior college basketball. I think he's probably prepared to step right in and play. He's seen and done a lot."
Ashford also visited Missouri State during the recruiting process, while Northern Illinois and SIU-Edwardsville were a couple other schools looking at him, according to Franklin.
CCU assistant coaches Richie Riley and Don Hogan had both been monitoring Ashford since last year, Ellis said. As Franklin recounted, Ashford had emerged as a promising recruit after a strong end-of-season run at Southeastern Illinois in which he had just seven turnovers through seven postseason games against strong competition.
"They're both extremely high on him," Ellis said of Riley and Hogan. "I remember them talking about him last year, just how they really liked him and felt he [would be] a great addition to us because he's not only a good player, but he's a good kid."
Ashford joins Kirksey (forward/center) and incoming freshmen Tyler Poole (forward) and Warren Gillis (guard) in rounding out the Chants' 2011 recruiting class, and Ellis said he would be the final addition to the 2011-12 roster.
Ashford's addition and experience as a ball-handler also provides the Chants with depth at a key spot if injured point guard Kierre Greenwood (torn ACL in February) isn't recovered in time to play next season.
"We feel strongly that Kierre can come back, but it's one of those things where we're not going to know about Kierre until the fall," Ellis said. "With the type of injury that he has, we felt like we needed somebody like Charles because of Kierre's situation."
**Thanks to Bret Swanson at Swannys Roundball Review and www.jucojunction.com for the tip on this signing.
| Ryan Young, ryoung@thesunnews.com
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