New Mexico sophomore Curtis Dennis has transferred to the University of Toledo and will join the Rocket men's basketball team midway through the 2011-12 season.
Dennis, a 6-5 shooting guard and native of The Bronx, N.Y., played in 10 games this season with the Lobos, averaging 2.9 points and 0.7 assists in 9.4 minutes per game. Last season as a redshirt freshman, he averaged 8.0 minutes in 31 games.
Dennis will be eligible to take the floor for the Rockets at the conclusion of the fall semester in December and will have just 1.5 seasons of eligibility left.
"We know their staff [at New Mexico], and the people at New Mexico swear by him," UT coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "They think he's a great guy. He just got caught up in a numbers game, but they certainly thought he was good enough to help them win. He just had a couple guys ahead of him."
Rated as a three-star recruit by Scout.com, Dennis posted 18 points and eight rebounds per game as a senior at Blessed Sacrament-St. Gabriel High School in New York in 2005-06. He then opted to attend a prep school the following season, when he averaged 24.5 points per game at Gulf Shores Academy in Houston.
Dennis spent another year at a prep school in 2007-08, leading Findlay College Prep in Las Vegas to a 32-1 record and an appearance in the prep school national championship game. He averaged 13 points and 3.7 rebounds per game while shooting 40.1 percent from 3-point range at Findlay Prep, and was ranked as the 13th-best prep school player in the country by Scout.com.
After redshirting during his freshman year at New Mexico, Dennis opted to transfer from New Mexico after not seeing as many minutes as he would have liked to start the season.
"The playing opportunity wasn't there," Dennis said. "It's a good environment [at Toledo] and it's very competitive. The coaching staff is really, really good. They aim to help develop the players. It's a rebuilding year this year, so they're working to turn around the program, but I think Coach K is going to do it."
An additional benefit of Dennis' transfer, other than adding another veteran, talented player who can make an immediate impact next season, is it helps even out the class ranks. Had Kowalczyk signed another freshman, it would have given him five freshmen and six sophomores on scholarship on next year's roster. That kind of imbalance just doesn't work when you only have 13 available scholarships for an entire team.
But with Dennis' addition, the class ranks for 2011-12 will be a little more even, but still a little bottom-heavy with no seniors.
SENIORS
None
JUNIORS
G Dominique Buckley
G Curtis Dennis
G Malcolm Griffin
SOPHOMORES
C Delino Dear
G/F Reese Holliday
F Hayden Humes
G Rian Pearson
F Matt Smith
G J.T. Thomas
FRESHMEN
G Juice Brown
G/F Ryan Majerle
G A.J. Mathew
F Justin Moss
Comments