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By Nick Veronica

Canisius appears to have filled one of its big recruiting needs, landing a verbal commit from junior college point guard Kiefer Douse.

Douse

The news was first reported by recruiting websites and confirmed by Douse’s coach. (Update: The Griffs announced his commit on April 27.)

Douse, a left-handed shooter from Brampton, Ont., scored 8.6 points per game last year for Jacksonville College (which is in eastern Texas, go figure) while shooting 50.8 percent from the field and 30.7 percent from behind the arc. He added 2.6 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game. (His highlight video is above, he’s #3.)

Douse (6-foot-3, 175 pounds) was a three-start recruit out of prep school, according to Rivals. He gave a verbal commit to Vermont, but for some reason didn’t end up there (wasn’t because of a coaching change; John Becker’s been there since 2011), instead playing his freshman year at NAIA school Concordia-Irvine (7.9 ppg). He transferred to Jacksonville before his sophomore season and appears to have two years of eligibility remaining.

Douse will be able to play this coming season, assuming all of his academics were in line at Jacksonville. He’ll have an opportunity to win the starting point guard spot, which was an area of concern after freshman Jan Grzelinski couldn’t hold the position last year. I penciled in Kassius Robertson as the starting point guard after the Griffs’ season-ending loss to NJIT, but all three players should compete for the job (though now that there’s another point guard option, Robertson may slide back to shooting guard).

[UPDATE: The Griffs landed a verbal from another veteran point guard]

Douse’s commit gives the Griffs one remaining scholarship to use for 2015-16 unless another player decides to transfer or has his scholarship pulled.

OUT: Josiah Heath and Jeremiah Williams graduated, Zach Lewis will transfer.

IN: Ronald Gombe (LOI), Kiefer Douse (verbal).