July 16, 2007

Updated Roster | Early Signees

ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio men's basketball program has completed its recruiting class with the announcement that three players have signed on to join the program.

Michael Allen (Detroit, Mich.), Allen Hester (Oakland, Calif.) and Bert Whittington IV (Temecula, Calif.) have committed to Head Coach Tim O'Shea and the Bobcat program for the 2007-08 season.

Allen will come to Ohio following two junior college stops. The 6-0, 180 point guard helped Cloud County (Kan.) Community College to a 23-10 record and two victories in the NJCAA District VI (Div. I) Tournament in 2006-07. Allen played in all 33 games and averaged 4.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.2 steals.

Following a successful prep career at Cody High School in Detroit, Allen played in all 30 games on a Daytona Beach (Fla.) Community College squad that finished 25-5 in 2005-06. He averaged 2.0 points, 1.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game during his freshman year.

Hester competed the last two seasons at Ohlone (Calif.) Community College, the same program that produced former Bobcat standout Mychal Green. Hester helped guide Ohlone to the Coast Conference North title in 2006-07 as the Renegades compiled a 28-4 record and advanced to the quarterfinals of the California Community College State Tournament. He earned All-Coast Conference First Team honors as he averaged 10.5 points per game and shot 41-percent from behind the arc. Hester was also an All-Coast Conference First Team honoree when he averaged 10.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game as a freshman in 2005-06.

As a senior at St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, Calif., Hester averaged 19 points and five rebounds and was named second-team all-league. He helped his squad to the Div. IV California state title as a junior.

Also heading to Athens will be Whittington, a teammate of Hester's at Ohlone. Playing the point for the Renegades, Whittington guided the team to a 49-25 record the past two seasons and averaged 10.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.3 steals in 2006-07. Those numbers followed a 2005-06 freshman campaign that saw Whittington lead Ohlone with 12.9 points and earn All-Coast Conference Second Team Honors. That year he also averaged 2.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.5 steals.

Allen and Hester previously signed National Letters of Intent during the Late Signing Period while Whittington just recently committed to Ohio by inking a Mid-American Conference Letter of Intent.

With this trio coming on board, the Bobcats will now have seven new faces in the program for next year, and nine new players on the active roster. In addition to the four high school recruits that came on board during the Early Signing Period last fall, transfer Justin Orr (Cincinnati, Ohio) is now eligible after sitting out last year, and walk-on Andrew Vroman (Bowling Green, Ohio) has been promoted to the active roster after spending the second half of the 2006-07 campaign as a member of the practice squad.