New UNCW men’s basketball coach Kevin Keatts has added three players to the Seahawk program.
Point guards Malik Pugh (Dyer County High School, Dyersville, Tennessee) and Jordan Talley (Fishburne Military Academy, Richmond, Virginia) will be eligible in 2014-15. Shooting guard Jarvis Haywood (Harding High School, Charlotte) is a transfer from Jacksonville and will sit out the 2014-15 campaign.
Malik Pugh, Jordan Talley and Jarvis Haywood became Seahawks on Monday. Photo courtesy UNCW athletics.
“We’re very pleased to have these three young men as the cornerstone of what we’re trying to build here,” said Keatts, who took over the helm of the program in early April.
“They each have different strengths and will be able to contribute in their own way. We’re looking forward to working with them this summer and watching them as they grow and improve in the years to come,” Keatts said.
The 6-1, 165-pound Pugh was a two-year starter at Dyer County and took the Choctaws to the TSSAA state championship game in his junior season. He averaged 20 points and four rebounds for Coach Derek McCord’s team last year.
Pugh poured in 47 points–with three minutes still remaining in the third quarter–in the 2013-14 season opener for Dyer County. He also had 33 points in a 78-69 loss to national power Chicago Simeon and 31 points against Harrisburg en route to MVP honors in the Penny Hardaway Hoopfest.
A Richmond native, Talley collected 12.3 points and 4.2 assists as a combo guard in his senior year at Henrico High School and propelled the Warriors to the 2013 Virginia High School League Group AAA state championship.
Last year, the 6-0, 180-pound Talley attended Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia, and served as the point guard. Fishburne and Coach Ed Huckaby Jr. went 25-7 and lost in the quarterfinals of the national prep school championship.
Haywood, a 6-4, 185-pound scorer, averaged 16.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists for the Dolphins, shooting 50.9 percent overall and 41.3 percent from three-point range. He earned Second-Team All-Atlantic Sun honors after reaching double figures 23 times in 26 appearances last season.
Haywood led the Dolphins in minutes per game at 30.2 and scored more than 20 points six times, including 23 and 28 points against East Tennessee State in two games last year.
