Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Rhode Island adds JUCO power forward Earl Watson to roster

hurley

Rhode Island has added a front court player to its program, as the school announced on Wednesday that Chipola (Florida) College power forward Earl Watson is now a member of the team. Watson, who’s listed at 6-foot-7, 250 pounds, will only practice with the team for the remainder of the current season. That will ensure that he has two full seasons of eligibility remaining, beginning with the 2014-15 campaign.

Watson averaged 9.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game last season at Chipola, a season in which he tallied four double-doubles. Interestingly enough Watson was expected to join the Wichita State program this past summer, however a math class that was not completed resulted in his being unable to do so.

That ultimately led to Watson joining Dan Hurley’s program at Rhode Island, giving the Rams another interior body for practices as the prepare for the remainder of Atlantic 10 play.

“We are happy to have Earl join our basketball program,” Hurley said in the release. “Earl is a nice addition for our roster. He is an experienced, mature player and provides us with another physical presence.”

Watson joins a front court that next season will return (at the very least) Gilvydas Biruta, Hassan Martin and Jarelle Reischel. Mike Aaman hasn’t played since mid-November, undergoing an emergency appendectomy following a loss at Arizona. Aaman was also the victim in an off-campus incident in which he was allegedly assaulted. Jordan Hare took a leave of absence from the team for personal reasons in early February and has not returned since.

Follow @raphiellej