azusa pacific signees

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Azusa Pacific Signs Mann, Michel;
May Get Berumen--(May 22, 2000)

We've learned that perennial NAIA power Azusa Pacific University has picked up two players in the past week, one a high school senior and the other a Division I transfer. APU has signed Brett Michel (6'-6" Sr. SG/SF) from Simi Valley HS, and will officially sign Joe Mann (6'-10" So. C), who will transfer from San Diego State. Mann told the San Diego Union Tribune "that he will play next season at NAIA power Azusa Pacific" but our sources who know tell us that it's not a done deal quite yet, but things will be finalized by Wedneseday of this week.

p-mann.jpg (4062 bytes) Mann (pictured left), a 265 pound center, was a three-year letterman at Poway High School in San Diego and averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds a game during his senior season, shooting 62 percent from the floor and 70 percent from the free-throw line, with four 20-plus point games. His senior year, Poway finished with a 23-8 record, and Joe was named to the first-team all-Palomar League team, and first-team All-San Diego County. As a freshman under Fred Trenkle, Mann appeared in 25 games, starting three times, and he averaged 10 minutes per game. Last season under Steve Fisher, he played in 28 games but only started once, again averaging about 10 minutes per game. He only shot 39 percent from the field (19-48) and only attempted 19 free throws all year, but was a lot more effective from the line, making 15 of those 19, for a 78% FT percentage. While Mann largely played a supporting role at San Deigo State, he has the mobility and outside shooting touch, or at least he did in high school, to become a major impact player at Azusa Pacific, and he should help fill the void that will be left by the loss of KC Tanner (6'-10" Sr. C) who graduates this year.

Michel, a big-bodied shooting guard who averaged 20 ppg this season for Simi Valley and helped lead them (along with teammates like UCSB-signee Branduinn Fullove and returning post-player Dustin Villapigue) to the Southern Section Division I-A finals against Mater Dei, should also be another very good pickup for the Cougars, and he will help replace some of the scoring that Azusa will miss with the graduation of two NAIA All-American shooters Kevin Daley (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) an Artesia grad from Panama who transferred to APU from UCLA, and Jerome Joseph (6'-1" Sr. SG) a Chatsworth HS grad who transferred to APU from The Master's College. Michel managed to fight through and seemingly played unaffected by the turmoil surrounding his brother and teammate Shaun Michel (6'-2" Jr. PG) who was removed from the team late in the season and who will reportedly transfer to Mater Dei for his senior season.

APU is also working on signing Michel's former Simi Valley teammate Rafael Berumen (6'-9" Fr. F) who played one season for New Mexico's Fran Fraschilla, but left at the end of the season. Berumen has also considered enrolling at either the College of Southern Idaho (which also recently signed another SDSU transfer, Bradley Jackson (6'-0" Fr. PG)), and he's also looked at spending next season with coach Mike Miller at LA City College. The real question with Rafael is how important he believes it may be to ultimately transfer to a Division I program; if he believes that it's not as important as he once thought, it looks like APU would have a pretty good shot at signing him. Rafael also has some family concerns which may have served as a bit of a distraction last season (he and his girlfriend have a 1 year old baby, and Rafael's parents also moved to New Mexico with him last season), but hopefully he'll be able to concentrate on just his studies and basketball wherever he winds up.

APU is losing five players to graduation, so the signings of Michel and Mann, and the possibility of picking up Berumen has to be very attractive to Coach Bill Odell and his assistants Ken Ammann and Ethan Hamilton. In addition to Daley, Joseph and Tanner, APU will also lose the services of Owen Healy (6'-5" Sr. F) from Calimesa, CA, and Damian Raibon (6'-4" Sr. F) from St. Margaret's HS in San Juan Capistrano, who transferred from Irvine Valley College.

Last season the Cougars won their eighth straight GSAC championship, and they went to the NAIA Tourney for the fifth straight year. Azusa Pacific won 27 of 33 games and finished the GSAC season with an impressive 16-2 conference record. Azusa Pacific also has the best record overall of any 4-year program in California since 1993: Azusa Pacific is 227-52 (.814) in that time, including going 98-14 (.875) in GSAC play.

This is actually a very good time for Odell to be picking up commitments: Next year, Azusa Pacific moves into a new $12 million, 3,700-seat event center, which is currently under construction and which is scheduled to be completed this summer.