Tenale Roland rounds out 2012 recruiting

A few weeks ago we were able to piece together enough of the USU recruiting picture to determine that was hard after another wing and another point guard for next season, including who the prime candidates were. Since then we'd seen both of the wings on Utah State's radar commit to become Aggies, but the point guard situation was still a little bit unclear.

No longer...

Tenale Roland added his name to USU's potentially legendary 2012 recruiting class on Tuesday.

While Quan Conner made waves among USUfans with an impressive highlight video, Roland indeed might have been the guy the coaching staff coveted all along. While he didn't have the luxury of wowing fans with a slick-looking YouTube reel, Roland was the first to take an official visit to USU of the two, is touted as a stud defender (which we know is HUGE for Stew), had impressive numbers across the board and even brought home some all-American honors.

Roland was listed as a freshman at Rend Lake College last season, which leads to believe he and Marcel Davis will be splitting point guard responsibilities for the next three seasons. Under Stew Morrill at USU, no single point guard has played regular minutes for more than two seasons, so to have this kind of continuity would be something pretty major.

Also pretty major is Roland averaging 20.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game as a freshman this past season. He also shot 43 percent from the field and hit on 40 percent of his shots from behind the 3-point line.

In my book though, the biggest thing is the all-American honors. Chaz Spicer, Gary Wilkinson, Jared Quayle and Brian Green are the recent guys to make a major impact for the Aggies after grabbing all-American honors in junior college.

After a "disappointing" season relative to the expectations that come with Aggie basketball these days, one had to think the coaches would be looking for a big splash on the JUCO recruiting scene to go with all the underclassmen who played big minutes last year and to replace the departing seniors. With an all-American, a California co-Player of the Year, an uber-athletic wing from New York and highly sought-after big man, the Aggies look to be in a good spot for replacing Brockeith Pane and Morgan Grim, while adding more potential star power on the wings with Preston Medlin and Danny Berger.

Add these four JUCO transfers along with a pair of two-time first-team all-state players from Utah and one of the best basketball players in the history of Montana high school basketball, the 2012 recruiting class looks pretty freaking good right about now.