After weeks of speculation concerning the 2018 recruiting class for the University of Rhode Island’s basketball team, three of the four recruits have declared their intention to stay with the program moving forward after the decision to promote David Cox to the position of head coach.
Jermaine Harris, Dana Tate and Tyrese Martin confirmed their commitment to the program last week over Twitter. Harris and Tate are four-star recruits according to ESPN, while Martin is the lone three-star remaining in the class. Each recruit tweeted out their support for Cox prior to and following the announcement last Wednesday.
Cox was officially named head coach of the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball team this past Friday, becoming the 20th head coach in school history. Cox who has been an assistant/associate head coach of the program for the past four years, has done a lot of the recruiting for the program. Most noticeably and recently, Cox was able to bring in Harris, who currently sits 84th in the ESPN Top 100.
Along with Harris, Cox had has hand in recruiting incoming freshman Martin, sophomore point guard Jeff Dowtin, redshirt freshman big man Michael Tertsea and freshman Fatts Russell. Cox was also the main recruiter on Brandon Adams, a 3-star recruit who according to Corey Evans of Rivals.com, asked for his release from URI on April 4, now reopening his college recruitment.
The three incoming Rhody recruits have been outspoken on their support of Cox on Twitter. On April 2, still during the high time of the head coaching search for the University, Jermaine Harris tweeted, “No disrespect to anyone but I hear different names but I signed up to play for Coach Cox.”
Two tweets from fellow recruits Martin and Tate echoed those sentiments, followed Harris’ tweets. Martin responded tweeting, “Only name I signed up for,” with Tate’s response being, “Behind my brother all the way on this one! Love Cox and our relationship, only coach I’m willing to play for.” With Cox now officially being named head coach it seems currently that all three Rhode Island commits are behind Coach Cox all the way.
Russell also took to Twitter to express his opinion on where he stands with the program on April 8, tweeting, “After a long couple of weeks of talking with my family and friends. There is no place I would rather be than Rhody.” It appears that with the coaching turnover after his first collegiate season, Russell was weighing his options with his family of whether to stay or leave URI.
Cox has also already been quick to get into the transfer market, with URI offering Boston University graduate transfer guard Cheddi Mosely. The 22-year-old, New Jersey native only played two games for the Terriers last season, missing the rest of the season with a knee injury.
At the end of his introductory press conference Coach Cox was also quick to make his first official future offer, offering his son Jacob Cox, of the high school graduating class of 2024 and Westerly Middle School, a scholarship.