UT signs recruit

The Toledo men’s basketball team added the seventh player to their recruiting class with the addition of Josh Freelove on Tuesday.

Freelove, a 6-1, 175-pound guard from North Lauderdale, Fla., will be a welcome addition to a backcourt that lost four co-captains last season, including leading scorers Tyrone Kent and Jonathan Amos, along with Anthony Byrd and Ridley Johnson. The Rockets have signed four guards to a national letter of intent so far this offseason.

“Josh is another quality student and young man that will be joining our program,” Toledo Head Coach Gene Cross said. “He’s a prolific scorer and an unbelievable athlete who can play multiple positions. He can handle the ball in the halfcourt offense and push the ball in transition. I’m really looking to coaching Josh, because I don’t think we have anybody on our roster that plays the way he does.”

Freelove averaged 26.5 points and five assists per game during his senior year at North Broward Prep in Coconut Creek, Fla. He was named to the Miami Herald’s All-Broward Class 1A-3A First Team this year and represented Broward in the South Florida All-Star Basketball Classic.

Cross hopes that his incoming guards, including Freelove, Jake Barnett, Malcom Griffin, and Neil Watson, can help reduce the amount of turnovers this season. The Rockets finished last in the Mid-American Conference in turnovers at 17.1 per game, and finished 321st in the NCAA’s Division 1, ahead of just nine teams.

“Ideally, you would like to have a situation where you can play two point guards, and I think that’s what we’ll have,” Cross said. “We turned the ball over at an astronomical rate last year, and you won’t do that if you have at least two good ballhandlers on the court at the same time. I think it’s a luxury to have as many good guards on your roster as possible, because good guards, especially good point guards, win games and they also win championships.”

The Rockets also ranked 299th in the country in assists per game (10.8) and 325th in assist-turnover ratio (0.63).

The incoming freshmen guards will join sophomores Larry Bastfield and Clayton Sterling, along with redshirt-freshman Stephen Albrecht in the UT backcourt.

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