Staff Report
Two months after being stabbed in a bar fight, J.R. Giddens signed a scholarship grant-in-aid on Monday to transfer to the UNM men's basketball program.
Giddens left the Kansas University basketball team after a May 19 fight at the Moon Bar in Lawrence, Kan.
Giddens was unavailable for comment. In the Moon Bar fight, he suffered a severed artery in his right calf. He is still recuperating and spent five on crutches.
The Douglas County District Attorney's Office is still reviewing the case, although no charges have been filed.
Giddens decided to transfer after the incident. Giddens and Kansas head coach Bill Self decided it would be in Giddens' best interest to transfer.
Giddens would have been the Jayhawks' top returning scorer. Last year, Kansas received a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, but lost its first-round game to No. 14-seeded Bucknell.
Giddens was the Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year in 2003, guiding his high school team, John Marshall High School, to a state championship in his senior season.
Giddens was recruited to Kansas by ex-coach Roy Williams, who is now at North Carolina. ESPN.com ranked him the 17th-best recruit in the country coming out of high school.
As a freshman, he averaged 11.3 points per game and was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman team in addition to garnering honorable mention All-Big 12 honors.
He averaged 10.1 points per game as a sophomore.
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Like former Lobo Alfred Neale, Giddens has cleared 6-10 in the high jump.
Giddens is the third Division-I transfer the Lobos have picked up this summer, all of which don't have the cleanest records. NCAA rules require each transfer to sit out a year before playing in any games. Giddens will have two years of eligibility remaining.
The three transfers will begin playing for the Lobos in the 2006-2007 season.
A fourth transfer, junior college player Justin Holt, also had a brush with the law in his past. He left Virginia Tech after campus police cited him for marijuana possession. Holt was not kicked off the team, but decided to leave after the incident took place. UNM is the sixth college Holt has attended or signed with. Holt is available for the 2005-2006 season because he transferred from a junior college.
The first D-I transfer UNM snagged was ex-Penn State University player Aaron Johnson, who led the Big 10 in rebounding with 9.9 per game. He transferred to UNM in late May, shortly after his involvement in a fight at a PSU on-campus apartment. He had decided to transfer before the fight took place. Johnson will have one year of eligibility remaining.
Josh Jenkins, who transferred from New Mexico State in late May, will be a walk-on for the Lobos. He graduated from Valley High School in 2003, and was kicked off the basketball team his senior year for showing up drunk to a school dance. Jenkins will have three years of eligibility remaining. He averaged 10.1 points and 3.5 assists per game for the Aggies.
