La Salle Completes 2002 Class

La Salle Head Coach Billy Hahn (right) will have a much longer bench for his second year at the helm of the Atlantic 10 school.

La Salle announced last week that, as expected, David Bell, a 6-7, 185 pound small forward/swingman from Mt. Zion Christian Academy in Durham, NC, had signed with the school. What had been a question mark was his academic status. We verified with the La Salle SID staff that Bell is fully qualified.

Bell averaged 14.2 points last season at Mt. Zion. The Philadelphia native attended Olney High School before heading to Mt. Zion this past season. The Philadelphia Daily News named him to the All-Public second-team the previous season.

RivalsHoops.com's publisher, Mike Sullivan, reported that Seton Hall, New Mexico, Kansas, Syracuse, Villanova, Miami, Oklahoma, George Washington, and Kansas State had also been recruiting Bell.

The Explorers also picked up another transplant who was attending school in North Carolina: Lewis Fadipe, a 6-10, 215 big forward from Lagos, Nigeria. Fadipe came to the United States in January and prepped at Christian Faith Center in Creedmoor, NC. He had attended Forest Hill School in London, England prior to his arrival in North Carolina.

Fadipe was used in a reserve role at CFC. RivalsHoops.com's Russ Blake reported that he was seeing interest from schools such as Miami (FL) and Wake Forest.

Bell is expected to be an immediate impact player; Fadipe is not. But there was little question about the Nigerian's academic status; he scored 1100 on the SAT.

The Explorers' two other incoming freshman hail from Hahn's prior stomping grounds when he was an assistant at the University of Maryland -- Jermaine Thomas, a 6-3 combo guard from Frederick's Thomas Johnson High School and Gary Neal, a 6-4 shooting guard from Baltimore's Calvert Hall College High School. Thomas, who was the Washington Post's player of the year, and Neal, who was named to the Baltimore Sun's All-Metro second team, played together on Paul Bowden's Baltimore Select program.

Bell is the second Philly player that Hahn has brought in since taking over for Speedy Morris in the spring of 2001. Steve Smith, a 6-8 forward from Northeast High, sat out last season as a non-qualifier. You can bet that more will follow from the City of Brotherly Love.

Photo: La Salle University Sports Information Department