By Jonah Bronstein<br><a href="mailto:bronsteinj@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Jonah</a>
June 03, 2008 04:10 pm
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The Niagara University men’s basketball team got smaller on Monday — and a whole lot bigger Tuesday.
Luuk Kortekaas, a Dutch center who stands close to 7-feet, signed a letter of intent Tuesday to play for the Purple Eagles next season.
“He’s every bit of 6-11. If he’s not 6-11, he’s taller,” an excited coach Joe Mihalich said Tuesday morning by phone from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Niagara Falls, where he was sending off his newest player. “Basketball is a big man’s game, and we’re going to be a team next year that needs size.”
Kortekaas will effectively assume the roster spot vacated by Andrew Patterson, a swingman who has played sparingly for Niagara the past three seasons, but intends to transfer to Division II Bellarmine University, according to a report Monday in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Mihalich acknowledged Patterson’s departure by noting the Purple Eagles “now have another scholarship to use,” but reserved further comment until later in the week.
“I did realize this morning that we are going to have six guys in uniform next season that weren’t in uniform for us this year,” Mihalich said.
Kortekaas is the third member of Niagara’s recruiting class. He joins Eric Williams, a forward from Ontario, and Austin Cooley, a guard from Washington, D.C.
The Purple Eagles will also add transfers Bilal Benn (Villanova) and Rob Garrison (Connecticut), the latter a Niagara Falls native, along with Kashief Edwards, a forward who redshirted as a freshman last season.
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