Eastern Illinois men's basketball coach
Marty Simmons has announced the addition of Corey Sawyer Jr., to the Panthers roster for the 2023-24 season. Sawyer comes to EIU following two seasons playing at Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kansas.
Last season Sawyer earned All-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference second team honors as he ranked seventh in the league in scoring at 16.5 points per game. He added 5.3 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 2.2 assists per contest as Cloud County CC won its first Region IV Tournament game in seven seasons. Sawyer ended the season setting the school record for free throws made in a season with 223 and career free throws made with 337. He finished the season ranked second in the NJCAA in free throws made per game at 8.8 connecting at 79.1 percent from the stripe.
"We are excited to welcome Corey to the EIU Basketball Family," said Simmons. "Watching Corey play, you can see that he has an extremely high motor and ability to get to the rim. He finds ways to score the basketball, whether that be from the floor or the free throw line where he was one of the top players in the country in terms of getting to the free throw line."
Sawyer (6'4" / 160) is from Oviedo, Fla., and attended The Master's Academy for high school. This past season at Cloud County he scored in double figures in 29 games reaching 20 or more points in nine contests with a high of 26 in his final game of the season at the Regional Tournament. During his first season at Cloud County he averaged 11.2 points per game with 13 double figure scoring games including a high of 31 points against Hutchinson CC.
