North Charleston native Grant joins Tigers' staff

CLEMSON -- New Clemson basketball coach Brad Brownell continued to round out his coaching staff Tuesday, this time with a Charleston tie.

Brownell hired Wichita State assistant Earl Grant, a native of North Charleston and a former assistant at The Citadel. Grant had been an assistant for three seasons under Gregg Marshall at Wichita State.

"It was an opportunity to come home and coach in the ACC, which was too hard to pass up," Grant said.

Grant joins former Tulane assistant Dick Bender, as well as assistant Mike Winiecki and manager Lucas McKay, whom Brownell brought from Wright State.

Foxsports.com reported Tuesday that former Clemson assistants Ron Bradley and Josh Posterino will join former Tigers coach Oliver Purnell at DePaul.

Also on Tuesday, Clemson officially signed point guard Cory Stanton, who was granted his release from a letter of intent at Wright State to follow Brownell to Clemson.

"Cory is a kid I've known for a long time," Brownell said in a release. "He's a very talented guard. He's got good quickness and athleticism. He's a pretty good outside shooter. He's a scoring point guard that has an infectious personality. He's a hard worker. In my opinion, he will be a leader of this program in the future because of his personality and his drive to be successful. We're lucky to have him."

The 5-11 Stanton is a combo guard, who averaged 23.7 points per game as a senior at Springfield (Tenn.), where he was rated as Tennessee's No. 7 basketball prospect.

Brownell was in Atlanta on Tuesday, visiting with another recruit, Mr. Georgia Basketball Marcus Thornton.

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Thornton had originally signed with Clemson but was granted a release following the departure of Oliver Purnell. A number of major programs are interested in Thornton, including Kentucky, Memphis and Georgia Tech.

Reach Travis Sawchik at tsawchik@postandcourier.com and check out his Clemson blog at www.postandcourier.com/blogs/tiger_tracks.