Sidelines: Libbey s Wells picks Marist

10/18/2007

Libbey senior basketball standout Julius Wells, a 6-foot-6 swingman for the 21-2 Cowboys last season, has made a verbal commitment to Marist College of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

How does a Toledo player wind up at a college in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.?

First of all, the coaching staff was real friendly, Wells said, and it seems like a good place to get an education. It s a beautiful campus.

Wells, who missed most of the last half of last season with an knee injury, received a scholarship offer from the Red Foxes after a productive summer of AAU basketball competition with the Dayton-based D-1 Greyhounds.

They told me they liked the way I could score in a lot of ways, Wells said, and they liked the way I can jump and dunk on people.

The bottom line for me was that the coaching staff will be behind me 100 percent. They said they would work with me night and day to get to the next level, and that would be probasketball.

Coach Matt Brady, who recruited Wells, led Marist to a 25-9 finish last season, winning a regular-season outright MAAC title with a 14-4 record. Marist is located less than one hour from New York City.

Julius has really progressed as a player and as a person in the last year, veteran Libbey coach Leroy Bates said. In college, they re planning on using him on the wing. His ballhandling and his outside shot have really improved from last year, and they love his athletic ability.