Despite the departure of four forwards from last season’s roster, the APSU men’s basketball team has managed to add depth quickly to this year’s squad.

A month after Georgia transfer Mike Peake received a waiver to participate in the upcoming basketball season, former Oklahoma Sooner Corbin Merritt was additionally cleared to play by the NCAA, as reported by Jeff Goodman.

The duo, who were initially expected to serve as offensive replacements for senior forward Terry Taylor in 2022, bring power five tenacity to Clarksville as the Governors hope to be crowned Ohio Valley Conference champions.

Merritt was ranked as the third-best junior college transfer prior to his lone season in Oklahoma. The redshirt junior appeared in eight games as a sooner. As for Peake, the former Bulldog logged minutes in 24 games last season, averaging a shade over two points and two rebounds per contest. Govs head coach Matt Figger knows the potential talent that both players present to the program.

“Corbin is a big, physical, athletic guy,” Figger said to Letsgopeay.com. “He’ll help in the front court with rim protection and he can step out and shoot threes. Adding him with a year of Big 12 experience brings a quality veteran to our program.”

“He brings a lot of energy,” the coach added on Peake. “He takes pride in defense. He came from a winning program in high school and he played on one of the best Nike EYBL teams in MoKan. He’s an experienced winner and has the experience of playing in the SEC, especially as his minutes increased down the stretch. He has legit size that played well in the SEC.”

Peake and Merritt are joined in the front court by OVC Player of the Year Terry Taylor, freshman Ibrahima Jarjou and transfer center Merdy Mongozi. The quartet of newcomers replace former Governors in Matheus Silveira, Sita Conteh, Eli Abaev and Sam DeVault.