ABILENE – Abilene Christian second-year men's basketball coach
Joe Golding recently completed his 11-man recruiting class for the upcoming 2012-13 season with the addition of 6-foot-1 guard
Charles White.
A Philadelphia native and 2008 graduate of Simon Gratz High School, White comes to Abilene after spending the previous three seasons at Hartford of the America East Conference. White was first recruited to play for the Hawks by then-head coach Dan Leibovitz, and as a redshirt, practiced alongside ACU assistant coach Jaret von Rosenberg.
White strived in Lebovitz' attacking style offense in 2009-10 and led Hartford's freshmen in averaging 4.6 points per game through 27 appearances. He also earned 14 starts, received America East Rookie of the Week honors after scoring a career-high 12 points vs. Stony Brook, and sank a timely layup that sparked a game-ending run in a one-point win over Binghamton. Defensively, White pulled down 60 rebounds and was credited with 15 steals.
Hartford made a coaching change prior to White's sophomore year, and his playing time decreased over the next two seasons as the Hawks switched to a motion offense. But despite the decrease in production, Golding believes the Wildcats have acquired a tremendous source of leadership for the ACU locker room.
“Charles is a great kid and excellent leader,” Golding said, “and I'm confident that he can come in and provide the leadership and toughness that our younger players will quickly need to learn. And even though he didn't play as much the last two years, I still consider him to be a great on-ball defender who is equally skilled at getting to the basket to score.”
White will be one of seven seniors listed on this year's roster and is one of five who has NCAA DI experience along with fellow transfers John King (Stephen F. Austin),
Eric Lawton (Arkansas-Little Rock),
Elliott Lloyd (Northern Colorado), and
Steven Werner (Sam Houston State).
Coming back from last year's team are two additional senior talents, forward and former Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year
Dosh Simms, and third-year guard
Desmond Woodberry, who is looking to finish strong after missing most of last year with an injury. The Wildcats went 5-1 with Woodberry as a starter in 2011-12, and during his first year at ACU, he averaged 8.8 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
Simms led ACU in rebounding last season with 5.8 per game and was among its leaders in steals with 30.
Golding and his team of assistants added to this veteran mix celebrated high school recruits
T.J. Brown,
Caleb Carr,
Riley Payne,
Tyler Rogers and
Parker Wentz, plus junior
Cornelius Cammock, who helped carry Paris Junior College to a conference championship as its leading rebounder.
“I must compliment the fine recruiting job done by coaches (Brian) Burton and von Rosenberg during their first year in Abilene,” Golding said. “It wasn't always easy signing and bringing in all these new guys, but they did a fantastic job of identifying our needs and ended up getting all the right guys here.”
