Plymouth RaidersThe UCP Marjon Plymouth Raiders have signed their third player of the season, American centre Otis Polk. The 6’9″, 290lb, 22 year old attended Bowling Green University in the USA for the last four years, where he played for Head Coach Louis Orr, a former NBA centre himself.

“I am delighted to have signed Otis for next season,” said Raiders Coach Gavin Love. “He is going to give us a true presence inside. What first brought Otis to my attention was what he did without the ball, especially his movement. He sets a lot of screens and seals his defender really well. Otis does all the little things to make his team mates better. He’s strong, he’s a very good rebounder, he’s athletic for his size and he finishes well around the basket. I think he is going to be a great asset for this team.”

Averaging 10 points, 7 rebounds and over a block per game in the tough MAC conference in his final year at University, Polk will bring a toughness to the Raiders that they were missing last season. Love added, “I’ve talked to a lot of the coaches of teams that played Otis last year, and they were all full of praise for him – I think a few of them were glad they didn’t have to face him again next season! The one thing that everyone said him was that he was big. Very big. But very athletic for his size as well. He’s had a great coach work with him a lot and pass on a lot of his experience. It’s rare to find a big guy like Otis who has such good footwork inside.”

Having signed guards Cody Toppert and Taner Adu, Polk represents Raiders’ first permit player signed this year. Love is continuing to talk to a number of other players about joining the Raiders for the 2010/11 season. “There’s one guy I really would like here, a pretty athletic small forward who can also play the guard positions, play really tough defense and shoot the ball really well. He’s getting some interest from other teams, but I’m hopeful that by early next week, we’ll have something to announce.”

“Now that we’ve secured Otis for next season, we’ll get to work on the work permit and visa,” said Raiders Chief Executive. “We want to make sure each of the Work Permits and Visas are in place ahead of schedule so the players aren’t having to rush around trying to get paperwork sorted at the very last minute.”

Source: www.bbl.org.uk