South Dakota State University men’s basketball head coach T.J. Otzelberger announced Wednesday the addition of four who will enroll at SDSU this fall and compete for the Jackrabbits.
The newcomers are:
• Sergio El Darwich, 6-foot-4, guard, Lebanon (Lee Academy (Maine));
• A.J. Hess, 6-6, guard/forward, Carefree, Ariz. (Southern Utah);
• Michael Orris, 6-2, guard, Crete, Ill. (Northern Illinois); and
• Andre Wallace, 6-0, guard, Minneapolis, Minn. (Iowa Western CC).
Both Hess and Orris are graduate transfers who will be eligible to play immediately and have one year of eligibility remaining. Wallace will have two years of eligibility starting this fall, while Darwich will have four years of eligibility.
A native of Lebanon, Darwich attended Lee Academy, a prep school in Lee, Maine, during the 2015-16 academic year.
Hess started 63 games during his three-plus seasons at Southern Utah. He averaged a team-best 11.7 points points per game and led the team in free throw percentage at 84.1 percent during the 2014-15 season. He was averaging 8.3 points per game through the first six games of the 2015-16 season, but was lost for the remainder of the year due to injury, which resulted in him being granted a hardship to play one more season.
Orris started 39 games over two seasons at Northern Illinois, ranking second on the team with 98 assists (2.97 apg) during the 2015-16 season. He also averaged 2.7 points per game in 33 games, including 22 starts. Orris began his collegiate career at Kansas State, where he played in 15 games during the 2012-13 season, before returning to his home state.
Wallace averaged in double figures for scoring each of his two seasons at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs.
