The 2012-2013 Lions Basketball team will be starting off the season with several new players and high hopes.
“If we have good newcomers, like I think we do, especially with our junior college class of three incoming juniors, I believe that the year can be a really good one,” said Lions head coach Jim Yarbrough. “The only thing that is a real obstacle for us is that we have 12 home games and we have 17 road games. So that’s kind of a difficult task, but as long as we focus on conference play, we have nine home games and nine road games of conference, then I think long term we have a chance to be pretty good this term.”
Returning junior Quin Cooper, a shooting guard who transferred to Southeastern from Centenary College of Louisiana last year, has high expectations for the team this season.
“We have a good solid core coming back,” said Cooper, a sports management major. “Like eight or nine guys from last year’s team that got good minutes, and Coach Yarbrough brought in a solid recruiting class this year that should really help us out a lot. Honestly, we’re expecting to win the Southland Conference this year, and we expect big things for this season.”
Yarbrough believes that the team’s greatest strength going into the season is their perimeter depth. He attributes the improvement this year to the return of Brandon Fortenberry, who had a season-ending injury last year and will be returning to play this season.
“We were really thin, really inexperienced and we didn’t have point guard depth,” said Yarbrough about the team after Fortenberry’s injury occurred. “This year I think our recruiting efforts, plus what we have returning has rectified in a very positive way. Even though I think we have much better shooting and good ball-handling, I think better decision making overall, I still think we have a very formidable line.”
Yarbrough also believes that several returning players, such as Roosevelt Johnson, Todd Nelson, Jeremy Campbell and Antonnio Benton, are stronger and wiser this year because of the game time they logged last year. He said that the strength of the returning players combined with the new players shows promise.
“We have five new players, but the class has been broken up into two very good, very promising young freshmen from Mississippi in Roger Woods and Avery Woodson,” said Yarbrough. “In a normal year, they might come in and play 10 to 15 minutes of game easily. This year, because of the depth of the returners we have and the junior transfer members, they may find themselves not playing so much this year and being in more of a learning role.”
The other three new players this season are junior college transfers: Dre Evans from Blinn Junior College in Texas, Jeffrey Ricard from McLennan Community College and
Jamaal James from Polk Community College in Florida.
“It’s a real plus to be going to a Division I institution and to have a team like our men’s basketball team, for example, that can get to an event like March Madness,” said Yarbrough. “We’ve got a very good program in this decade here at Southeastern, a very consistent program, and we’ve been real competitive and very close to winning the Southland Conference several times since 2005. I would love this group of students to come out and participate and be a part of what we’re doing. I think they would be pleased if they did, and I think we could create a great environment in the University Center.”
Full Court Fest is the official kick-off of both the men’s and women’s 2012-13 basketball seasons, and the event will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. in the University Center.
“I think it’s good for the fans to come out and see us,” said Cooper. “The players, we get to have fun. It’s kind of a break from a traditional practice. We get to show them what we can do and get them excited for the year, and hopefully we get a good turnout.”
The Lions will face off against Millsaps College during their first game of the season at home on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m.