Mondays with Bobby, featuring Mitchell Henry

The Western Kentucky basketball program got its first verbal commitment for the 2014 signing class when Rob Marberry tweeted Tuesday he plans to play for the Hilltoppers.

Marberry is a 6-foot-7-inch, 210-pound forward playing at Franklin Road Academy in Nashville, Tenn., where he’ll be a senior this season. He owns the school record for blocks in a season with 95 and averaged 14.4 points and eight rebounds as a junior.

He reportedly holds offers from Belmont, Chattanooga, Fairfield, Florida Gulf Coast, Lipscomb, Mercer, Miami (Ohio), Middle Tennessee, Toledo and Wofford.

ESPN rates him as a two-start prospect with a grade of 69. He is unrated by Rivals and Scout.

Western Kentucky has three seniors on the current 2013-14 roster – guards Caden Dickerson and Brandon Harris and forward O’Karo Akamune. The NCAA’s early signing period for Division I basketball begins Nov. 13.

Rob Marberry

     Why WKU? “Me and my family, we chose WKU (Monday) just for the total fact that the coaches are like a family to me. The whole coaching staff was awesome. Coach (Ray) Harper, coach (David) Boyden – coach Boyden was the main guy who recruited me through the AAU season this year. I really had a good relationship with the coaching staff really early and I just loved it there.

“I’ve been to the campus twice and the first time I met most of the players. Got along with them, they were a great group, seemed like family from the first second I met them. The second visit I got to visit the actual campus and kind of walk around and meet a couple administrators and stuff of that nature. I just really fell in love with the campus.

“It’s a beautiful campus, a great location for basketball and Kentucky is just a mecca for basketball. That’s why me and my family chose Western.”

    Other programs: “My other offers were Belmont, Florida Gulf Coast, Toledo, Fairfield, MTSU and Wofford. I narrowed it down to Belmont, Florida Gulf Coast and WKU probably about a month ago and I loved all three schools, but I just had a great relationship with the coaching staff at WKU.

“I have my (AAU) team Kentucky Travelers and I spent a lot of time up in Kentucky this summer kind of going to practices and walk-throughs and stuff like that.

“I love the city, I love Bowling Green. It’s a lot different from Nashville and I kind of wanted to get away from town just to kind of experience something new because I’ve been living in Nashville all my life. I really thought WKU and Bowling Green was just the perfect situation for me. It’s not too far away from home, but I definitely know it’s a change as I go up there for school.”

    Plan to sign in November? “I’m definitely gonna sign early. Me and my family talked about, we want to get all the recruiting process over with so I can focus on basketball at FRA and my academics for FRA and finish my senior year strong and get on to my freshman year of college.”

Filed under: Basketball, Talkin’ bout the Tops