Transfer student key for team

Junior College transfers have been making major impacts in big time college sports for awhile now. Would the 1990 NCAA champion UNLV Runnin' Rebels have won the basketball championship without Larry Johnson? What about IU's basketball team? Lynn Washington and William Gladness played major roles in the post near the end of Bob Knight's reign. \nThe IU baseball team is no different with Kennard Jones, a transfer, who is expected to make a major impact on this year's team. \n"Kennard has excellent speed and is a legitimate lead-off guy," coach Bob Morgan said. "He's very important, because we need someone to get on base and set the table, and he gives us great ground coverage in center field."\nJones, a junior, was born in Cleveland and raised near the Washington, D.C. area. He brings an impressive resume to IU. In high school, he earned all-conference by batting .683 with 27 stolen bases and 38 RBIs. He played two years at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Ala., where he earned first-team all-JUCO honors as well as first-team all-region honors. The sports broadcasting major wants to continue his success as a Hoosier.\nIn his first two games at IU, he is 4 for 7 with a triple, a double, a stolen base, 2 RBIs and 6 runs scored.\n"Even though I'm a new guy, I still want to be a leader," Jones said. "I'm learning things all the time, like how things are run around here, what the team needs and what the coaches want."\nHe has known a few of his teammates for years now. One of those teammates, Joe Kemp, has been playing baseball with Jones since Little League.\n"Kennard is a very hard working man with great work habits," Kemp, a starting outfielder, said. "He is very serious about baseball and his teammates."\nKemp enjoys Jones' company in the outfield.\n"He takes over and has great speed patrolling the outfield," he said. "He's a spark plug out there. He brings unbelievable athletic ability.\n"He has major league speed, and that is the tool that makes him very special, not to mention his hitting and fielding skills. He's very important to us scoring runs early in the game. He's in scoring position at any time. Kennard will absolutely have a chance to play baseball at the professional level"