COVINGTON, Ga. — Former Newton star, J.D. Notae is officially a college free agent.
The Florida Times-Union reported Saturday evening that Notae and guard Jalyn Hinton are leaving the Dolphins’ program at the end of the semester.
Notae spent his first two collegiate seasons at Jacksonville University where he won Atlantic Sun Conference freshman of the year honors and was one of the team’s top scorers in each of his two seasons.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound sophomore averaged 15.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists for the Dolphins who struggled to a 12-20 record in the 2018-19 season and a 5-11 conference finish which placed the team seventh in the nine-team conference standings.
Notae’s scoring freshman scoring average (15.4) was almost identical. But Notae saw an increase in field goal and free throw percentage, rebounds and assists. He took his game up another notch as a sophomore, when he recorded his first career triple double back on January 9 in a 90-70 win at Kennesaw State. In that game, Notae tallied 15 points, 10 points and 10 rebounds.
He exploded for a career-high 40 points during a 123-77 win over Florida Memorial back on November 21.
According to a tweet from Shun Williams of On The Radar Hoops, Notae has already heard from Creighton, Colorado State, Nevada, Bradley, Seton Hall, UNC-Greensboro, Toledo, Oklahoma State. Middle Tennessee, UAB, North Texas, Western Kentucky and Iowa State.
The opportunity to transfer to UNC-Greensboro could be an enticing prospect for Notae as he would be reunited with former Newton teammate, Isaiah Miller. Miller and Notae made up one of the most dynamic backcourts in Georgia back when they played for a nationally ranked Newton squad that ended the 2016-17 season with a loss to eventual Class AAAAAAA state champion Tift County.
Miller, a 6-foot, 180-pound sophomore, had a bit of a breakout season with the Spartans in 2018-19, despite UNCG not making the NCAA Tournament. He was the team’s second leading scorer behind senior Francis Alonso, averaging 15.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and three steals a game while seeing his minutes played increase by almost 12 from his freshman season.
Alonso scored 17.6 points per game and shot 37 percent from 3-point range while Notae buried 62 treys at a 32 percent clip, down from his 40.5 percent pace from beyond the arc as a freshman.
Meanwhile, Miller won the Southern Conference’s defensive player of the year award and became the first player in school history to tally 100 steals in a season. He’ll figure to be a bigger scoring option in his junior season with Alonso’s departure, and adding another proven scorer like Notae who already has chemistry with Miller would seem like an ideal situation.
