The OVC Ballcast will run every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the summer and will likely be expanded during basketball season.

You can also find the Ballcast on iTunes

The Southeast Missouri twitter account posted these photos today of running back Spenser Davis performing a few moves for an Athletics / River Campus ad campaign.

Here are the two teaser photos for the campaign.

Ugo Celestine

During his senior year, Celestine helped GCA win the Georgia State Championship in the Class A Private division.

Celestine is the Tigers fourth pickup during the spring signing period.

Celestine was named as a senior to the Atlanta Journal Constitution All-Metro Team. According to GCA, the forward received interest from high-major teams, including Cincinnati, Auburn, Clemson, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech and Georgia.

As a senior, Celestine averaged 12 points, six rebounds, and three rebounds a game. The school says those numbers were depressed somewhat by having five double-digit scorers, and that starters were pulled early throughout the season in quite a few blowouts.

His former coach says Celestine can play more than just forward.

“Ugo is multi-talented with no glaring weaknesses,” GCA head coach David Jones said. “He can play the 2, 3 and 4 positions. Even, played back-up PG for us at times this year. Shoots the 3, can put it on the floor and finish at the basket with either hand. Also, he is a good defender. He is happy to be going to be Tennessee State, and I think they will be more than happy with him.”

You can see highlights of Celestine on Play On Sports.

A special thank you to Greenforest Christian Academy for reaching out to us with information on Celestine.

Wait, where are you going? I HAVEN’T EVEN SAID WHY YET.

More fouls would make the game more exciting. I’m not kidding. Why are you laughing? No really, guys, it would.

Well, it should. In theory.

Placing more emphasis on foul calls, especially hand checks and off the ball elbows and push offs inside is among the proposed changes the NCAA is considering making in an attempt to increase scoring. Now sure, you’re probably thinking something along the lines of “sure, more free throws will increase scoring, but the game will be stopped even more than it is now.”

But actually, it shouldn’t be.

One of the biggest issues in the OVC right now isn’t that there are too many fouls getting called, it’s that they’re not getting called consistently. With a certain crew, you can get away with just about anything and everything short of a clothesline tackle. But with other crews, you breathe the wrong way, the whistle is getting blowed. So players, short of getting a scouting report on the referees for every game, don’t know how to play.

But if those same calls are made consistently, you can adjust how you play defense. And that adjustment should give an advantage to the offense.

I can hear the contrarians in the group now complaining how this is going to make defenses worse, and sure it will somewhat. But how much do we really like defense, anyway? We like the idea of defense. Then we watch Tennessee and Georgetown both fail to score 40 points in a game, and suddenly it’s not so cool anymore.

It’s not going to make defense impossible. Good shot blockers will still find ways to reject shots. Good guards will still be able to step in the path of a pass.

And especially important for OVC fans: it should reduce the gap between the conference and the Big six. How? The biggest difference between smaller conference and the larger ones tend to be size. Arizona is bigger than Belmont. Cincinnati is bigger than SIUE.

That allows those teams to play more physical against smaller opponents. If only there were enforced rules in place that could lessen their ability to be overly physical?

The “enhanced” charge-block rule should have a similar effect. Essentially, it makes drawing charges harder. Which yes, it isn’t ideal for teams that were good at it. (Looking at you, Murray State) But, it should make a defender think twice about making a late move to get underneath a player. Look, that’s one or two fewer whistles a game right there!

So this is one thing I agree with the NCAA on. Bring on the foul calls. Let offenses have a chance to score.

And to all those who love defense; I guess I’m sorry that 101-100 is more exciting than 39-38.

From Shepard Michigan, the 6 foot 6 forward had a productive senior season in which he averaged 14.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2 blocks.“Josh is a guy who had outstanding high school career, in particular, his senior season,” APSU coach Dave Loos said. In his senior seaon he earned postseason accolades by being named a member of the Tri-Valley Conference team and was a All-State honorable mention.

His senior season included six 20 point games and a season high 28.

“I think what he will have to do here is get in the weight room and improve his core strength, make the adjustment from high school to college basketball, especially the Division I level,” said Loos on what improvements Ledbetter needs. “We look forward to having him in our program and working with him. He could be a possible redshirt candidate, but we will see how it goes before making that determination.”

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, former Gophers quarterback Max Shortell has decided to transfer to Jacksonville State. According to the paper, Shortell tweeted his intentions on Thursday.

Max Shortell

Minnesota announced in December that Shortell would be departing the program. Shortell’s father told the paper the reason behind transferring was that his son felt he would not get a chance to play after losing his starting job last season.

In 13 games with the Gophers, Shortell threw for 1,172 yards with eight touchdowns.

It’s very possible Shortell could be the team’s starting QB this fall. Returning quarterback Coty Blanchard didn’t go through spring practice while focusing on baseball, and could be a high MLB Draft pick in June. Kyle West and Eli Jenkins saw most of the snaps in the JSU spring game.

Video of a TD pass from Shortell against Western Minnesota is posted above.

“DeAndre has only played three years of organized basketball, but his potential is off the charts,” Head Coach Sean Woods said. “He is extremely athletic, long and runs the floor well. DeAndre could be a difference maker for us with his ability to score, rebound, defend and block shots.”

DeAndre Leatherwood

Leatherwood, who was reportedly 5-foot-8 as a freshman at Northwest High School (Md.), didn’t play competitive basketball until his senior year. He started high school as a football player, but made the transition to hoops after growing 14 inches in just five years.

Leatherwood averaged 2.9 points and 3.3 rebounds as a freshman at Prince George’s in 2011-12 before averaging 7.5 points and 8.2 rebounds as a sophomore. He was invited to the prestigious Mullen’s Juco Top 100 Camp during the summer of 2012.

A native of Germantown, Md., Leatherwood posted nine double-figure scoring performances and 15 double-figure rebounding efforts for the Owls in 2012-13. Prince George’s, an NJCAA member, competes in the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference.

“Not too many people know about DeAndre because of his unique story, but I’m glad we found him,” Woods said. “We’re excited about adding DeAndre to the group of signees that we’ve already announced. The goal is an Ohio Valley Conference championship, and he can help us get there.”

Leatherwood was also being recruited by Penn State and Temple.

A highlight video from PGCC is posted above.

It truly is a late invite, as the combine is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

ESPN will have live coverage of this year’s combine, starting at 9 a.m. CDT on ESPNU and at 1 p.m. on ESPN2 for both days of the combine. You can also access the combine coverage on ESPN3.com

Covington’s stock has been rising since the end of this season. Last month, Covington was named to the Portsmouth All-Tournament team. The 6’9″ forward has averaged at least 17 points a game each of the past two season, and over seven rebounds each of the past three.

The Giants rookie mini camp starts tomorrow, and runs through Saturday.

Carr stuffed the stat sheet last season, throwing seven touchdowns in not one, but two games for the Skyhawks. Carr was a second-team all OVC selection, Carr threw for 3,276 yards, and was the only OVCer to throw for 3,000 yards and fewer than 10 interceptions.

Neither player has currently signed with a new team.

These transfers aren’t especially surprising. Both Joy and Birts saw there minutes decline from their freshman year, and the two combined for 30 points on the season.

Joy has seen more minutes late in the year, after the suspension of Jerome Jones, and would have likely seen even more minutes in 2013-14.

With the news of these transfers, there will be more new players on next year’s roster than returning. With five players graduating, just six of the 13 players on last year’s roster are returning.

Both players should have two years of eligibility remaining with their new teams.