The men’s basketball team added another piece to next year’s roster with last week’s transfer of Donnavan Kirk. Kirk, a 6′ 9″ 230-pound power forward from Detroit, chose to play at the University of Miami before the 2009 season. He was redshirted that year, and played the first 13 games for the Hurricanes this season, averaging 2.7 points and 1.6 rebounds in just under 10 minutes per game.

“He’s a run and jump athlete that fits our style and our system,” DePaul Head Coach Oliver Purnell said. “[He has] long arms, can block shots, runs like a deer, and I like the fact that he’s young.”

The transfer was announced by DePaul on Jan. 10.

Kirk was an ESPN Top 100 recruit coming out of high school. He is eligible to attend class and practice with the team from this point on, and will be able to play in regular season games after the 2011 fall quarter.

“I also like the fact that he’ll be eligible at the end of the first quarter next year, which means probably only one or two games he’ll miss,” Purnell said. “I like the fact that he can practice [now], he can practice during the summer, he can practice during the fall. As opposed to the other guys who are coming in, who start from scratch.”

Kirk had a previous DePaul connection as well.

The Blue Demons’ current Director of Strength and Conditioning Mac Calloway joined DePaul in April of 2010.

For the previous five years he served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Miami. He also worked with Purnell, for one year each at Dayton and Clemson, in a similar role.

“Mac kind of got the word that [Kirk] may be leaving, and so we just kept our ears open” Purnell said. “And obviously we talked to Mac a lot about it, and we got a lot of tape on him and that kind of thing.”

Kirk will join at least five freshmen who have signed a National Letter of Intent with DePaul: Point guard Shane Larkin from Florida; shooting guard Macari Brooks from University Park, Ill.; small forward Jamie Crockett from Crete Monee high school in Illinois; power forward Braeden Anderson from Massachusetts; and center Derrell Robertson from Mississippi.

Larkin and Anderson are both ranked as three-star recruits by ESPN and Scout.com, while Brooks was given a three-star grade from ESPN, and a two-star from Scout.com.