How the 2017 class will impact Todd Simon’s second season – St. George Daily Spectrum

Southern Utah's bench cheers during Monday's game against Coastal Carolina, Nov. 21, 2016, in Las Vegas, Nevada.(Photo: Jordan Allred / The Spectrum & Daily News)Buy Photo

Todd Simon will experience something for the first time this upcoming season. When the Southern Utah head coach looks down his bench, hell see a full roster of scholarship players at his disposal.

Itll be the first time Ill coach a college basketball game and have a full roster, Simon said. I'm excited to look down and not be short-handed. Thatll be fun.

It sometimes is the simple things that can lead to excitement.

During his first year at SUU, Simon chose not to hand out all the scholarships he had available. And when he was the interim coach at UNLV in 2016, he was down to just six scholarship players by seasons end. The 2017-18 season should be different.

The T-Birds 2017 class features seven new players, five of whom will be immediately eligible to take the court next season.

There are the freshmen: guard Dre Marin, forward Jordan Lyons and forward Jerell Springer. The graduate transfer: forward Jamal Aytes (BYU). And the junior college transfer: Jamil Jackson (Williston State).

SUU also signed Arizona State transfer Andre Adams and Boise State transfer Cameron Oluyitan. Those two players will have to sit out a year per NCAA transfer rules.

College Mens Basketball: Idaho vs Southern Utah, Saturday, Mar. 4, 2017, in Cedar City, Utah. Final score: UI 84, SUU 75.(Photo: Jordan Allred / The Spectrum & Daily News)

We feel that it was a very good offseason for us, Simon said. We are filled up now. We are excited about it. I think we have a good mix. We have three freshmen, two transfers, a grad transfer and a junior college player. We feel that we balanced it pretty good.

So what can fans expect from the new additions?

Marin is a sniper from the outside. The 6-foot averaged 21.7 points his senior season at Apollo High (Arizona) while shooting 38 percent from deep. Lyons, a6-foot-7 wing, averaged 15.2 points and 9.4 rebounds last season for Athlete Institute Prep in Mono, Ontario. And Springer might just be the jewel of the class. Springer is a three-star prospect who didnt get to play his senior season in high school because of an eligibility battle. The 6-foot-6 wing averaged 20 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and just under 1 block per game in his junior year.

Simon looks back at Year 1 and ahead to Year 2

Jackson was ranked as a top 100 junior college player by jucorecruiting.com and a top 50 junior college player by 247Sports.com. The 6-foot-6 wing averaged 15.4 points and 6 rebounds in over 27 minutes per game for Williston State.

Aytes began his career at UNLV before transferring to BYU for two seasons. The 6-foot-6 forward has had injury trouble throughout his career, but if he can stay healthy could provide SUU with an inside scoring presence the T-Birds lacked in Simon's first year.

College Mens Basketball: Montana vs Southern Utah, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, in Cedar City, Utah. Final score: UM 70, SUU 55.(Photo: Jordan Allred / The Spectrum & Daily News)

The T-Birds were an abysmal 6-27 last season and will have to replace four players who were mainstays in the lineup: guards John Marshall (7.6 points and over 30 minutes) and Race Parsons (7.8 points on 38 percent 3-point shooting) and big men Will Joyce (nearly 4 points and 4 rebounds) and Brayden Holker(4 points).

But its more than replacing that production, its improving it. And in some areas, improving it quite a lot. According to KenPom.com, the T-Birds ranked 349 out of 351 teams in defensive efficiency, giving up 119.6 points per 100 possessions.

We were not a good defensive team by any stretch of the imagination or by any metric last year, Simon said. Size, length, and inexperience are probably the three-headed monster that gets you and we missed all three of those things.

College Mens Basketball: Northern Arizona vs Southern Utah, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017, in Cedar City, Utah. Final score: SUU 84, NAU 68.(Photo: Jordan Allred / The Spectrum & Daily News)

The newcomers should help check off some of those boxes. Lyons, Springer and Jackson are long and athletic wings. And Aytes will bring some much-needed experience to the young T-Birds down low. Even Marin, while not as long as his fellow newcomers, was considered one of the better defensive prep guards in Arizona. He averaged 2.8 steals per game during his senior season.

They are long, versatile and athletic, Simon said. They solve a lot of those issues that were highlighted last season.

While Simon admits that Aytes will have an advantage because of his experience, he anticipates each player in the 2017class will come in and immediately compete for minutes.

One through the bottom of the roster, you are talking about some pretty good competition, Simon said. You bring in guys anticipating to add to the top. Im a big believer that iron sharpens iron. You put them in a competition and let the guys figure it out.

The T-Birds will also get to see what Seattle transfer Jadon Cohee can do in a game. Cohee couldn't play last season due to NCAA rules, but in practices showed he has the ability to be one of SUU's top players.

Hes a guy that can really impact the league in so many ways, Simon said of Cohee. Hes physical. Hes a guy that can take the scoring load off of Randy (Onwuasor) and build great plays. Hes a very smart guard, a very intelligent guard.

And with all those players adding to an improving core of Randy Onwuasor, James McGee, Jacob Calloway and Ivan Madunic, the SUU head coach has some options to play with.

College Mens Basketball: Sacramento State vs Southern Utah, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017, in Cedar City, Utah. Final score: SAC 88, SUU 83.(Photo: Jordan Allred / The Spectrum & Daily News)

He could go for a lethal shooting lineup of Cohee, Onwuasor, McGee, Marin and Calloway.

A more traditional position lineup of Onwuasor, McGee, Springer, Aytes and Madunic

A near-positionless lineup of Cohee, Onwuasor, Jackson, Lyons and Calloway.

A lineup playing all three new wings (Jackson, Lyons and Springer) at the same time.

Or one of many other possibilities he didn't have his first season.

So if Todd Simon looks down his bench and smiles, youll know why.

Follow Ryan Miller on Twitter, @millerjryan.

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How the 2017 class will impact Todd Simon's second season - St. George Daily Spectrum