Even more than 3,000 miles from home, Marquise Kately couldn?t be more comfortable playing at Morgan State.
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound forward from San Francisco is one of three Bears players with ties to California, lured to Baltimore by Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman, who spent four seasons coaching at the University of California in the 1990s.
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And like Bozeman, who resigned from California and was placed on probation for eight years by the NCAA for recruiting violations, Kately also turned to Morgan State for a fresh start after transferring from California last fall. He withdrew from Berkeley school following the 2004-05 season to deal with “personal problems” and re-enrolled at Cal that spring before leaving the school at the end of the year. Kately said he liked what he heard about Morgan State and Bozeman after speaking with former Bears assistant coach Anwar McQueen, who is also a former Cal player.
“I just had to get away from home,” said Kately, who declined to elaborate further. “Coach McQueen did a great job telling me about Morgan and how Coach Bozeman used to be at California. It was just a perfect fit.”
So far, Kately, who has two years of eligibility remaining, has been everything Bozeman could have hoped for as Morgan State (5-4) prepares to host Longwood (3-10) at 7 tonight in a non-conference game at Hill Field House.
Kately is third on Morgan State in scoring (12.6 ppg) and rebounding (5.6 ppg), as he averages a team-high 34.8 minutes per game. But much of his playing time in recent weeks has come at point guard filling in for injured starter Jerrell Green, who has missed the past three games with an ankle injury. For the past two games, Morgan State has also been without backup guard Jermaine Bolden, who is recovering from a shoulder injury.
“Marquise is taking a step forward in every game,” Bozeman said. “We knew he could play [point guard] when he got here, but he?s obviously not playing it under the circumstances we envisioned. He will give allow us to show a number of different looks when Jerrell comes back.”
Kately, who averaged nearly 10 points a game in two seasons at Cal, has made a smooth transition to Baltimore. Last season, he focused on getting to know his teammates since he was ineligible to play in games because of NCAA transfer rules.
Kately said he expects the Bears to contend for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title after the team proved it can compete against some of the nation?s best teams, as it suffered four-point losses at UConn and Miami earlier this season.
“The hardest part for me had been watching from the sidelines the last few years,” Kately said. “I?m just really excited about this team because even though we don?t believe in moral victories, those games against UConn and Miami showed me we can compete with anybody.”
