The Tennessee Tech Men’s Basketball team is primed and ready to start the 2024-25 season as head coach John Pelphrey enters his sixth season as head coach of the Golden Eagles.
Tech returns a total of eight players from last year on their current roster, as well as seven newcomers.
Six of those newcomers are from the transfer portal ranks, as well as local Cookeville High School standout Colin Ayers (30), the lone freshman on the team.
New Portal Additions
The transfer portal players include senior guard Mekhi Cameron (1), junior guard Jaylon Johnson (3), junior guard Ray Glasgow (4), sophomore forward JaJuan Nicholls (7), junior forward Ola Ajiboye (8) and senior guard Matthew Sells (12).
Returning players ready to make Impact
As far as returning players are concerned, the Golden Eagles bring back some familiar faces such as junior forward Daniel Egbuniwe (0), who started in 29 of Tech’s 31 games last year, averaging 7.6 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game.
Another familiar face and key contributor from last year is senior forward Rodney Johnson Jr (5), who averaged 10.7 points per game and 5.1 rebounds per game.
Returning players that saw time last year such as sophomore guard Kyle Layton (2), sophomore forward Rylee Sammons (15), senior guard Bogdan Zimonjic (33) and junior center David Craig (34) will all look to play a role in 2024.
The other two returning players on the 2024 roster were both injured last year and were forced to medically redshirt.
Grant Squared
Redshirt junior guard and local Sparta, Tennessee, native Grant Slatten (10) spent time playing in the SEC during his freshman year at Ole Miss before transferring to Tech for his sophomore campaign. Slatten played in all 33 games for Tech in 2022-23 as a sophomore and finished the season with five starts. He suffered a season-ending shoulder injury and was forced to miss the entirety of the 2023-24 basketball season.
Redshirt sophomore guard Grant Strong (11) played in 31 of Tech’s 33 games in 2022-23 as a true freshman, finishing with 11 starts. Strong was also forced to miss most of the 2023-24 season as he suffered a season-ending back injury that required lots of rehab and recovery.
Both players will look to contribute in a big way for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
Opening Dates
The Golden Eagles have exhibition games against Austin Peay on Oct. 22 and Oakland City on Oct. 29. Both games will be at home in the Hooper Eblen Center before traveling to Athens, Georgia, to take on the Georgia Bulldogs in the season opener.
Conference play for the Golden Eagles opens up on Dec. 17 as Tech travels to Western Illinois to take on the Leathernecks.
