This week, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams announced their new signees being added to the teams next fall.
The five players for the Cowgirls and the six for the Cowboys make for a new class of 14 signees for UW, after the signing of Lexi Bull, Grace Ellis and Landri Hudson in November.
Head Coach Jeff Linder added six new players to the Cowboys 2020-21 roster. Three recruits are from junior colleges and three are fresh out of high school.
Drake Jefferies, a guard from Indian Hills Community College in Iowa, was a three-star ranked recruit, earning First-Team All-State Honors. After redshirting his Freshman year at Minot State in North Dakota, Jefferies spent the last season at Indian Hills, with two seasons left of eligibility. Jefferies led his team to a second seed position in the National Tournament, averaging 9.8 points per game and hitting 86 three points last season.
The Cowboys also added Forward Eoin Nelson from Otero Junior College in Dublin, Ireland. After playing last season for Otero, Nelson will have three seasons or eligibility. An aggressive offensive player, Nelson played for his country on multiple occasions at the U18 and U20 European Championships.
The Pokes picked up another great junior college player in Forward Drew LaMont from Indian River State College in Florida. Prior to playing at Indian River State, LaMont played one season at American University, now with two seasons of eligibility. Last season, LaMont averaged 12.8 points per game and hit 84 three-point shots, earning him first Team All-Southern Conference.
The Cowboys also had commitments form three outstanding high school players: Guard Xavier DuSell from Arizona, Forward Graham Ike from Colorado and Guard Marcus Williams from Texas. All three were ranked as three-star recruits and had impressive high school careers, all ranking in the top 10 recruits for their states.
The Cowboys signing class was ranked No. 53 in the country and No.1 in the Mountain West.
The Cowgirls expanded their recruitment, signing five new players from all around the world: Forward Dagny Davidsdottir from Iceland, Forward Paula Salazar from Spain, Forward Marta Savic from Croatia, Guard Iris Tsafara from Greece and Guard Ola Ustowska from Poland.
Both Davidsdottir and Tsafara have experience playing for college teams.
Davidsdottir spent four seasons at Niagara University and will be getting her master’s in Finance at Wyoming. At Niagara, she served as her team’s captain her senior year and averaged 4.8 points a game and 90 percent from the free throw line. She earned academic all-MAAC honors three times and made the honor roll four times.
Tsafara redshirted her freshman season at University of South Florida before joining the Cowgirls. As her team captain in high school, she led her team to championship finals, where she was the top scorer. She also competed on the Greek team during U16.
All the other recruits had very impressive performances before attending UW. Salazar was part of many club teams that were nationally placed in Spain. Savic also excelled on the club level, with her team winning the 2019 Croatian U19 Championship. . Ustowska’s club team won the Polish championship in 2020, 2019 and 2018, with Ustowska being named an All-Star in 2019.
