New players give Mercer a boost

This year's Mercer men's basketball team has plenty of senior leadership in the form of Phillip Leonard, Jibri Bryan and Jestin Lewis.

And the roster includes a talented returning sophomore class, featuring Stephon Jelks, Jordan Strawberry and Demetre Rivers.

But there are several new players with the Bears who are making their presence felt, led by sophomore transfer Desmond Ringer and freshman Ethan Stair. Ringer, Stair and the Bears are 8-1, which is Mercer's best start as a Division I program.

"They have done a great job," Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman said. "Our assistant coaches have done a tremendous job in individual workouts, putting them into a position to understand what we're trying to accomplish on every play, defensively and offensively. They have grasped it well and gone on to the floor and done it at a high level."

Ringer has started all nine games, averaging 6.7 points and 5.8 rebounds. He is third on the team, playing 25.2 minutes per game.

"First of all, he just enjoys life, so that's a good thing. He keeps everything kind of light-hearted," Hoffman said. "But then his physical prowess, I guess, or his ability to be a physical player really helps us in the paint. He's not the highest-flying guy in the world, but he can hit somebody; he's really strong.

"He can hold a seal, which is big for how we run our offense, and sometimes he doesn't get as many touches as we'd like for him to get, but he's leading to baskets, even though he's not touching the ball all the time."

Stair is averaging 8.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game, and he is fourth on the team in minutes played at 23.4 per game.

"It's been really amazing," Hoffman said. "We watched him for a number of years and knew he had the potential to be solid and really good; he played for his dad in AAU and had a great high school coach and had done just about everything you can do in high school and in AAU. But just to see him now do that in this setting so quickly, I thought he could be good, but I think he's doing it a little sooner than I thought."

Ringer started his college career at South Carolina, picking the Gamecocks over the Bears after a standout career at Eagle's Landing, helping lead the program to its first state title in 2013. He transferred to Mercer and sat out last season.

"Getting settled into the program has been a good process for me," Ringer said. "I have known Coach Hoffman for a long time with recruiting and stuff like that, so I kind of had an idea what I was getting myself into coming here, so I'm just trying to work hard and get through and just excel in what Coach Hoffman asks me to do."

Ringer said the year away from the game motivated him and made him a better player. He played in 28 games at South Carolina, averaging 2.1 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.

"It helped me a lot. I got a chance to learn the offense and learn the defensive principles, and it made me really miss the game," Ringer said. "So I was just hungry to get back out here and get to work. It was extremely hard. I think that was the first season I ever sat out since I was like 4 or 5 since I can remember playing basketball, so it was kind of hard."

Stair was an all-state performer at Hazel Green in Alabama, averaging 22.4 points and 12.3 rebounds per game as a senior.

"I'm starting to slow down a little bit more; the game is starting to slow down for me," Stair said. "I'm starting to relax the more I play. The team is really starting to bond together, and we're getting really close as a team, and I think we're starting to pick it up here."

The Bears are 5-0 at home, and their only loss was a 77-71 defeat at Davidson. Mercer's next home game is Jan. 2 when they open Southern Conference play against Samford.

They open a tough road trip Tuesday at Auburn before heading to Arkansas, Ohio State and Kennesaw State.

"We're all doing a great job of buying into our role and doing whatever the team needs us to do," Stair said. "I've never really been with a team like this before to where everyone is best friends, and we can always go out and hang out and chill with each other, and we're getting along on and off the court."

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 10:13 PM with the headline "New players give Mercer a boost ."