The men's basketball team, led by second-year coach Mark Downey, has made some serious waves on the recruiting trail, gathering up four Division I transfers in Marshall's Noah Fischer and Xavier Humphrey, Radford's Evan Faulkner and South Alabama's P.J. Reyes. Add to that junior college All-American Terrell Lipkins and the future of the Golden Eagles' program looks pretty bright.

Downey said he's not done recruiting yet.

"We're trying to find a big man," Downey said. "We need one more big guy at least, but I like the class. We have a lot of things that we did not have last year, mainly guard depth, which you need in this league, and we've cleared that up. Last year we were big in a small league and now we've reversed that a little bit."

The Golden Eagles started slow in Downey's first season last year before winning eight of their last 10 games to end the season at 15-13 overall and 12-10 in the West Virginia Conference. The slow start was probably a product of installing a completely new system for players that were recruited by former coach Greg White for his system.

Downey said bringing in players that fit his schemes was pivotal for this year's class.

"I don't know how we could get a lot better on this level," Downey said of his class. "I think we're pretty deep. We've got different kinds of players that can do different things and that works well in this system. We need four guys on the perimeter that can handle the ball even at the four spot in our system, and we have that.

"I like the character of these guys. Now we can defend like we want to defend, all 94 feet. We couldn't do that last year because we were too big. It wasn't that the guys didn't want to do that, but I think this group can."

Women's golf debuts

UC will be ahead of the curve concerning women's golf in the area.

The Golden Eagles will introduce the sport this fall under coach Jim Jamieson, a former PGA Tour player who served as director of golf at The Greenbrier. Jamieson, now the golf instructor at Glade Springs, played 10 years on the tour, winning the Western Open in 1972 and recording top-five finishes in the Masters and the PGA Championship.

But even he admits that trying to establish a new program is a different beast altogether.

"West Virginia is limited with high school women's golf teams, so that makes it more difficult to recruit," Jamieson said. "We have to go out of state."

Actually, the first player to sign with the program was Jefferson High School's Allie Strider back in May. Jamieson has signed three more players since then but wasn't allowed to reveal their names. All three are out-of-state products, coming from California, Indiana and Georgia. Jamieson is also recruiting for two more spots and said he has been in contact with two players from Korea.

Jamieson said he has relied on the American Junior Golf Association to provide him with lists of players from around the country for recruiting purposes.

Despite the bumps in the road, Jamieson said his team will be ready to play this fall.

"We're looking forward to it," Jamieson said. "We'll use Edgewood as our host club. I told the girls that there is no added pressure on golf, they're here for an education first and if we can enhance their golf career we will. The school has been very receptive to the program and we're getting the right start."