Randy 'Chino' George playing for Saint Marguerite Basket last season.

Photo Credit: Provided

Randy 'Chino' George playing for Saint Marguerite Basket last season.

Photo Credit: Provided

The British Virgin Islands' Randy 'Chino' George has signed a 1 year deal to play for FC Mulhouse Basketball Club for the upcoming 2012-13 season.

The 6'8" forward is the third player to sign with the club for the upcoming season. George's signing came as a result of Coach Jamel Benabid's hard work and commitment to get the club promoted to the French National 1 League next season.

George was officially the first recruit of Jemel Benabid's team, but only signed a couple days ago as the transfer paper work was being finalized. George will complete the preliminary round of signings where he will join new signees, 6'10" center Xavier Di Marzio and point guard Jeremy Bichard as the other two new recruits, along with a core group of players that have re-signed for the club.

The Alsace Region based team finished the season in 2nd place in pool D of the National 2 League. FC Mulhouse was knocking on the doors of promotion, but eventually lost in the playoffs to AS Monaco in the best of 3 series (2-1) in which they would have been promoted to the French National 1 League.

George is an active member of the BVI national team as well as a member of the reigning champions Legs in the BVI Basketball Federation's Summer League.

The day after winning a title with Set It Off in the Virgin Gorda Summer Jam League in November 2010, he left for France, signing a contract to play for Saint Marguerite et Environs Basketball Club for the remainder of the 2010-11 basketball season. This was his first stint in France after spending 3 seasons in the British Basketball League (BBL) in the UK.

Upon arrival, George proved to be a potent scorer and put up 265 points (22.1 points per game) in the team's final 12 league games.

George sunk a season high 33 points against rival in-town team Saint Die Des Vosges Lynx in what is dubbed the Premier Derby between the two teams. By season end, he became the leading scorer in the league in average points per game, finishing ahead of Kevin Walter who he will now join as a teammate at FC Mulhouse.

The league pool was comprised of 10 other teams.

After the 2010-11 season, he then opted to re-sign with the same club to continue for the 2011-12 season, with an option for the 2012-13 season.

This past season, the forward once again put up very impressive numbers, scoring a total of 471 points (21.4 points per game) in 22 league matches, his season high being 27 points on 4 different occasions. George put up a total of 736 points in 34 regular season league games between December 2010 and April 2012.

Randy 'Chino' George led the way for the BVI against Bahamas

Photo Credit: Gordon French/BVI Platinum News

Randy 'Chino' George led the way for the BVI against Bahamas

Photo Credit: Gordon French/BVI Platinum News

This season, George finished in 2nd place of the best scorers in the league region pool K, behind El Hadji N'Diaye (24.28) and ahead of Moustapha Diop who finished in 3rd with an average of 19.91. He was the leading scorer of the club from December 2010 to April 2012.

George was also being recruited by other French teams as well as teams in Spain. After being contacted by the coach of Mulhouse, he went for a tryout during the start of this off season and really felt at home with the club.

"I worked out for a couple of teams that were interested in me after the season. All of the workouts went well. FCM was the last team I worked out for before I flew home. I watched them play in their final regular season game before they played in the playoffs and they have a pretty good team. My decision came about because I felt real comfortable with the playing atmosphere, their coaching staff, the players and their style of play. I felt that it could be a good fit and good opportunity to be a part of something special, not only for me, but for the club and the city in general who has a rich basketball tradition and a huge fan support system," George stated.

The team is based in Eastern France in the Alsace Region close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in the Haut-Rein department with a population of over 110,000 and the second largest city in the region behind Strasbourg.