Boyle Adds Fortune To Men's Basketball Roster
BOULDER – University of Colorado men’s basketball head coach Tad Boyle announced Wednesday he has signed transfer Josh Fortune to a Financial Aid Agreement (FAA) and will be added to the 2014-15 roster.
Fortune, who played the last two years at Providence College will sit out the 2014-15 season per NCAA transfer rules. He will have two years of eligibility remaining with the Buffaloes.
“We’re extremely excited about Josh and what he brings to our program,” Boyle said. “He’s a guy who is battled tested in the BIG EAST for two years, played a lot minutes and played in a lot of big games. To bring a player like that into your program, only helps us."
Fortune, a 6’5, 205-pound guard from Hampton, Va., started all 35 games during the 2013-14 season for Providence and was fifth in scoring with an 8.4 points per game average. He was second in assists (72, 2.1 apg.) and three-pointers made (56); and fourth in steals (33, 0.9 spg.). Fortune also shot 35 percent from the three-point arc (56-of-160).
In conference play, Fortune helped the Friars to a 10-8 conference record averaging 9.1 points and 2.6 assists a game. He made 34 of his 59 field goals from three-point range (37 percent). Fortune scored in double digits 14 times, including nine of the final 13 contests of the season averaging 11.9 ppg., 3.7 rpg., 2.1 apg., 1.2 spg.
Fortune was a key player in Providence’s BIG EAST Conference Tournament championship run last season, winning three games in three days. He averaged 14.3 points and shot 54.5 percent from the field (12-of-22), including a team-high six treys, in addition was 13-of-14 at the free throw line (.929).
Fortune scored a career-high 24 points against St. John’s in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament. It was the Friars (23-12) second conference tournament championship and first since 1994. They also made the NCAA Tournament second round falling to North Carolina.
““The fact that Josh sits out a year, I think is a good thing … it will allow him time to grow and develop parts of his game that he needs to work on, and it will give him a year to get use to our system what we expect and what we’re all about," Boyle added.
“He can shoot the ball, shoot it from deep, which is something our team needs. Three-point shooting is one of the areas we probably under-performed last year, so Josh really helps us.”
Fortune intended CU major is communication.
At Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, Va., Fortune averaged 13.8 points and 3.5 rebounds per game as a senior, was a two-time team captain, and helped the Warriors reach the state semifinals in 2012.