Published: May 16, 2008 11:34 pm         

Mountain State signs 6-foot-9 transfer

Mountain State has added the first piece of the puzzle as it tries to replace seven seniors who helped the Cougars reach the NAIA national championship game in March.

MSU inked Adinson Mosquera, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound transfer from Texas-Pan American. Mosquera’s NCAA Division I clock had expired, but he was eligible to play two years at an NAIA or NCAA Division II school.

Ironically, former Shady Spring standout Bruce Martin, an assistant under NCAA Division I All-Independent coach of the year Tom Schuberth at UTPA, helped Mosquera land at Mountain State. Mosquera sat out at Texas-Pan American last season.

“Bruce and I go back a long way,” MSU coach Bob Bolen said. “When I was transferring from Glenville to Bluefield (in college), I spent a year in Beckley and I coached Bruce on a 10-year-old AAU team. We spent the year traveling all over the East Coast.

“He recommended Adinson to us. He is extremely athletic and he can score in the paint and has a nice 15-foot jump shot. And he runs the floor well, which is something we like our big men to do. He will be a great fit in our offense.”

“Coach Bruce Martin told me about Mountain State,” said Mosquera, a native of Medellin, Colombia, in South America. “I know that Mountain State has a good program and I want to help win a national championship and make history.”

Mosquera is no stranger to national tournaments. He came to America in 2005 to play basketball at Lon Morris Junior College. During the 2006-07 season, Lon Morris advanced to the JUCO national championship and placed sixth.

Mosquera averaged 10.7 points and 7.7 rebounds during the run, including a 20-point, 13-rebound performance in an 85-82 overtime victory over No. 2 seed San Jacinto JC.

Bolen likes the junior-to-be’s post presence, noting he led Lon Morris in blocked shots (57) and rebounds (197) and shot 51.6 percent from the field.

Mosquera is returning to Colombia for the summer and will be back on campus in August.

Mosquera said he started playing basketball in middle school and quickly became enamored with the game.

“I watched college and NBA on television,” Mosquera said. “My favorite player is Gilbert Arenas (of the Washington Wizards). I like his style. And I like Amare Stoudamire (a physical player with the Phoenix Suns) and the way he plays. I like to play my game that way, too.”

Ironically, former MSU first-team All-American James Spencer, one of the seven seniors on last year’s team, went to the same school as Arenas in Los Angeles.

Mosquera said he has a simple theory for what it takes to be successful in basketball.

“If you can play defense,” he said, “then you can do everything else. To get the offense, you must first play defense.”