The men's basketball coaching staff at Texas A&M University-Commerce announced today the signing of five new players who will join the Lions for the upcoming season. All five bring an accolade-filled background to a team that advanced to the championship game of the Lone Star Conference Tournament in 2007-08.

Cardell Hunter, a 6-1 guard, is the first of four Division I transfers to join the Lions. He spent the last three seasons at the University of Texas-Arlington, which advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2007-08. After redshirting as a freshman with the Mavericks, he saw action in 62 games over the last two seasons and averaged 4.0 points, 2.8 assists and 2.1 rebounds a contest. He scored a career-high 12 points against Texas-San Antonio (Jan. 23, 2008) and Sam Houston State (Feb. 22, 2007). Last year, he dished out six assists in three-different games and had five rebounds in a game twice. As a redshirt freshman in 2006-07, he was a member of the Southland Conference All-Academic Honorable Mention Team. Hunter is a graduate of Carter High School in Dallas. In high school, he was named first-team all-district, all-region and all-state while leading the Cowboys to a 34-5 record and a state semifinal appearance his senior season. In addition, he was a McDonald's All-American nominee as a senior and second-team all-district performer his junior season. In the classroom, he was a member of the A/B Honor Roll and inducted into the National Honor Society and named to the Who's Who Among American High School Students.
 
Sammy Jackson, a 6-5 forward, comes to A&M-Commerce after spending the last two years at Jacksonville Junior College in Jacksonville, Texas. Last year, he averaged 10.0 points and a team-best 7.1 rebounds a contest as well as making 55.2 percent of his shots from the field. As a freshman, he averaged 9.1 points and 5.8 rebounds a contest en route to honorable mention all-region honors.
 
The third Lions signee, Michael Milton, is the all-time leading scorer at Plano Senior High and comes to A&M-Commerce after previously attending Big 12 member, Texas Tech. As a high school senior, he was named first team all state, district MVP, Dallas Morning News first team all area and a TABC All-Star while averaging 21.9 points and 6.5 rebounds a game. Milton set the school single-game scoring record with 41 points and was a three-time all-district selection.
 
For the second-straight year, the Lions coaching staff have picked up a transfer from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Joining the Lions from the Islanders in 2008-09 is Dominique Taylor, a 5-11 guard from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Like fellow newcomer, Cardell Hunter, Taylor gained valuable experience in 2006-07 as the Islanders advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
 
The final signee - Ronnie Morgan - comes to A&M-Commerce after spending last year at Paris Junior College, where they advanced to the national tournament. Morgan earned honorable mention all-conference honors while playing for former Lions assistant and standout Ross Hodge. He was ranked by Rivals.com as one of the Top 100 players in the nation. In 13 games as a freshman at Louisiana Tech, he averaged 1.4 points and 1.3 rebounds. The 6-6 forward won a state title as a junior at DeSoto High School and as a senior at Oak Cliff High School. He averaged 13.3 points and 9.4 rebounds a contest and was a teammate of Darrell Arthur, who was recently selected in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Memphis Grizzlies. His brother, J'Mison Morgan, will be a freshman in the fall at UCLA. Morgan was coached his senior at Oak Cliff High School by his father, Ronnie.

Earlier this year, the Lions signed three players – P.J. Colley, Brad Hambrick and DeUndrae Spraggins.