Tyrone Powell (Photo: Michael Sears / JSOnline)
With only ten players eligible for Green Bay’s season opener at Northern Illinois on November 14th, the Phoenix have added a pair of freshman walk-ons to their roster.
Simeon Parker and Tyrone Powell are both listed on the roster on the team’s official website and have been practicing with the team this fall.
Both provide depth in the form of possible end of the bench game time minutes as well as more bodies to compete against in practice. Green Bay only had 12 players on the roster due to Anthony Brown’s dismissal last month and only 10 players are eligible for the first 10 games of the season since Sandy Cohen and Cody Schwartz are sitting out due to NCAA transfer rules.
Cohen will be eligible following the first semester – his first game will be December 21st against Bowling Green at the Resch Center – but Schwartz will sit the entire season and have two seasons of eligibility left beginning next year.
Both walk-ons are Wisconsin natives coming off solid senior high school seasons.
Parker, a 5’9” point guard from Madison, finished 2nd on his team in scoring last season at 15.9 points per game. A 3-year varsity player at Madison West, he was named honorable mention all-conference in the Big Eight this past season, a solid basketball conference featuring the large Madison area high schools.
He boasts explosive athleticism and quickness which helps him get to the basket and, despite his short frame, sometimes finish with a dunk. He won the long jump at the Madison Indoor track meet this past March with an impressive 20’ 8.25” jump, which was short of his personal best 21’ 7” mark. He also ran the 55 meter dash and 55 meter hurdles this past fall for West.
As for Powell, a 6’6” forward from Wauwatosa, he averaged 9.6 points per game last season as a senior at Wauwatosa West, helping the Trojans to a 12-11 overall record. He was also named honorable mention all-conference in the Woodland West division after the season and was named his team’s Most Improved Player at the school’s annual winter sports awards last year.
Simeon Parker (Photo via Hudl)
Powell seems to do most of his work around the basket. He did knock down 52.4% of his three point attempts as a high school senior but only shot 21 total the whole season, an average of about one per game. He also was a standout prep volleyball player and was named second team all-conference last season.
Walk-ons rarely contribute at the Division I level, but with Green Bay’s short bench it wouldn’t be surprising to see the duo get some minutes early in the season.
Parker and Powell will be the second and third walk-ons of the Linc Darner era after Kaharri Carter was the first last season. He appeared in 4 games for the Phoenix last season playing a total of 10 minutes where he scored 1 point and had 1 rebound and 1 steal. He is playing this season at Centenary College, a Division III school in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Categories: Roster News
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