Walberg comments on recent roster developments
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – With the coaching change from Justin Hutson to Vance Walberg, and the roster volatility from year-to-year in college basketball these days, it is not surprising the Fresno State men’s basketball program saw a large portion of last season’s roster enter the transfer portal.
But there are a few Bulldogs from last season who are going to be sticking around to play under Walberg’s new regime.
Most notably, Sports Central has confirmed that Jalen Weaver will indeed be back with the Bulldogs next season.
Before Walberg was hired, Weaver reportedly entered the transfer portal in early April, but withdrew his name a short time later.
The 6-foot-4 senior-to-be averaged a little over seven points per game for the Bulldogs as a junior, and played some important minutes as a starter in the stretch run of last season.
Weaver, a Colorado native who went to Nevada for a year out of high school, and then spent a year at Salt Lake Community College, is a good slasher and defender, and would seem to be a good fit for Walberg’s full court pressing, dribble-drive system.
He struggled last season from behind the 3-point line though, connecting on only 27 percent of his attempts from long range.
Meantime, last week, Walberg signed two junior college players as his first recruits.
And perhaps the most intriguing of those two was 6-foot-5, 220-pound Chicago-area native Amar Aguillard.
He was the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) Division I Men’s Basketball Player of the Year last season at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois near Chicago.
In high school, Augillard averaged 28 points and 12 rebounds as a senior at Zion Benton High School, located in a suburb north of Chicago.
He was named All-Conference all four years in high school, and as a senior, scored 40-plus points in four games, on his way to being named Class 4A All-State, and first-team All-State by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA).
Out of high school though, he did not make much of an impact in two seasons at Georgia Southern, redshirting the first year there, and then putting up some modest numbers in year two (averaged three points, and 5.9 minutes per game in 11 games played).
Augillard transferred back home to the community college level, and last season at Triton College in the Chicago area, he was impressive.
He averaged 22.7 points per game to pace Triton College’s prolific offense, which ranked sixth in the nation in scoring at 91.9 per game.
“Just a guy who knows how to score a lot of different ways.” said Walberg, in a phone interview Tuesday. “He’ll drive, and he’s a guy who can create his own shot, which is always nice to have. Very good outside shooter, gets to the free throw line a lot, which I think is always really critical. I’m gonna get a chance to see him in two weeks at the national JUCO All-Star Game. So, it’ll be fun to go watch that in Vegas in a couple weeks.”
His 841 points and 122 3-pointers set Triton school records, and he shot 42.4% from 3, and 83.0% from the stripe.
With Augillard leading the charge, Triton made it to the NJCAA Division I National Championship Game.
Augillard reportedly had some other offers from power-five programs, but the Bulldogs won out in the end.
We asked the new Bulldog head coach to speculate on what put Fresno State over the top in this case.
“I think the big thing was the style of play,” said Walberg. “I think he (Augillard) really clicked with the coaching staff, I think he was very impressed with that. But I think style of play, if you talk to Amar Augillard, he wants to live in the gym, he wants to get better, he wants a chance, like every player that comes, to be able to get to the next level, and I think he saw a great opportunity here.”
Last week, Walberg also signed another junior college player, 6-foot-8, 215-pound forward Alex Crawford out of San Diego City College.
Crawford averaged nearly 16 points, and over six rebounds a game, in his one season at San Diego City, after playing at Division I Stetson for one season.
According to Walberg, Augillard and Crawford are examples of the new recruiting landscape present in college basketball, where college transfers and more experienced players are being prioritized over high school recruits.
“With the effect of the portal and the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness), it’s changed college,” said Walberg. “For high school seniors to get a scholarship any more, it’s really really tough, because you think about it, most Division I coaches, do you want to take an incoming freshman who’s 17 or 18, or do you want to take a JC transfer, or do you want to take a second, third, or fourth-year player out of college, who’s 21, 22, or 23, who’s got that experience? So, what’s happening is everyone is going to that other route, so a lot of the kids that would normally get scholarships in high school, might have to go JC, prep school, even high D-II, and then work their way up. There’s always a domino effect of whatever happens in the NIL and the portal, that’s kind of making that happen.”
