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Jeremy Joyner, front row, center, signs documents to receive a full scholarship and play basketball at UT-Martin. Also pictured are his mom, Joyce Pierce, left, and dad, John Joyner, right. In back, from left: Roane State Athletic Director Randy Nesbit, Joyner’s girlfriend, Jada Young, and Alan Holt, assistant coach of the Roane State Raiders.
June 19, 2018
By Bob Fowler
Roane State staff writer
He’s gone from being mainly a reserve for a Georgia college’s basketball squad to starting forward for the Roane State Raiders.
Now, Jeremy Joyner is taking the next step, and it’s a big one. The 6-9 Joyner has accepted a full scholarship to play for University of Tennessee-Martin. Joyner said coaches at UT-Martin recruited him after watching him in tournament play.
It’s impressive for a community college player to advance to a NCAA Division I team, Roane State Athletic Director Randy Nesbit said.
“Jeremy developed into a terrific scorer inside for us this season,” Nesbit said. “His hard work and dedication took him from being a reserve NAIA level player to NCAA Division I prospect. I’ve rarely seen a player improve so much in such a short period of time.”
Joyner played his freshman year at the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick and transferred to Roane State for his sophomore year.
Joyner averaged 11 points and six rebounds a game for the Roane State Raiders and completed a blazing 62 percent of his shots from the field.
“Jeremy is a long, athletic post player who plays with a really high motor,” UT Martin head coach Anthony Stewart said in a news release. “He’s a great student and he fits seamlessly within our program’s basketball culture. I’m glad we were able to get a high character addition like Jeremy this late in the recruiting process.”
Nesbit said Joyner’s shooting accuracy ranked him as 28th in the country out of more than 3,000 players in the National Junior College Athletic Association.
“Jeremy also excels in the classroom,” Nesbit said. Joyner attained a 3.0 grade point average at Roane State and said he plans to major in marketing at UT-Martin.
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