In the aftermath of Cuonzo Martin’s move from Tennessee to California the players who originally committed to the SEC school had to re-evaluate their options. One of those players was 6-foot-9 power forward/center C.J. Turman, a player the Volunteers looked to as a front court option to help account for the losses of Jeronne Maymon and Jarnell Stokes.
Sunday evening it was reported by Dan McDonald of Rivals.com that Turman’s found a new school, as he’s committed to play at Florida Atlantic under new head coach Michael Curry. That’s big news for Curry, who was hired to replace Mike Jarvis earlier this spring. Florida Atlantic finished the 2013-14 season with a 10-22 record, going 5-11 in Conference USA play.
Turman becomes the third commitment in Florida Atlantic’s 2014 class, and the fact that he’ll be playing at the school isn’t as big of a surprise as it seems. One of Curry’s assistants will be Charlemagne Gibbons, who was Turman’s coach at Morgan County High School in Georgia.
Also expected to be on the staff are Eric Snow, who was a member of Larry Brown’s staff at SMU last season, and Ron Oliver according to Dieter Kurtenbach of the Sun-Sentinel. Florida Atlantic is expected to return two of its top three scorers from last season, with rising sophomore guard Marquan Botley (11.3 ppg) and rising senior forward Justin Raffington (10.1, 8.5 rpg) both averaging double figures.