No. 9 Mocs Set to Open Season This Weekend at Down In The Delta Challenge

CLEVELAND, Miss. - Florida Southern is set to open its 87th season of men's basketball here this weekend as they play two games in the "Down in the Delta" Challenge hosted by Delta State University and held at Walter Sillers Coliseum.

The Moccasins, who are ranked ninth in the Preseason NABC/Division II Coaches' Poll, begins the two-day event on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 8:30 p.m. against Delta State, before facing Arkansas-Monticello on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 3 p.m.

Saturday's opener with Delta State will mark the earliest season opener for FSC since opening the 2007-08 season on Nov. 7 against Lees-McRae in its opening game of the Disney East Coast Tip-Off Classic at Disney World. The won that game, 99-75 en route to finishing 24-9 and advancing to the NCAA Division II Tournament. In addition, it is just the third time the Mocs have opened the season on or before Nov. 9 as they began the 1998 season on Nov. 9 against Kentucky State and the 1996 season on Nov. 8 at Saint Rose.

The Mocs, who return three starters and five key players from last season's 27-6 squad that advanced to the Elite Eight for the ninth time in school history, tuned up for the regular season by playing back-to-back exhibition games at Southeastern Conference foes, Florida and Tennessee last weekend.

"It will be a good test for us. We have to be ready to go," Moccasins head coach Linc Darner said following practice Friday morning at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Miss. "We are going to play two good teams that will provide some challenges for our team."

"We will have to find a way to get both of those teams to play at our tempo and get the game going up and down."

FSC fell 110-88 to 10th-ranked Florida last Friday as junior guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) scored 20 points, while senior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) added 19 points and then fell 105-80 last Saturday at Tennessee. Against UT, Capers scored a team-high 24 points, while junior forward Lamar McKnight (Cleveland, Ohio) added 13 points. 

Leading the list of key returners for the Mocs are Lane and Capers. Lane, who was named a Second-Team All-Sunshine State Conference selection last season, averaged 13.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game and shot about 41 percent from the field, while Capers, who was named an Honorable Mention Preseason D-II All-American by the Sporting News, also averaged 13.4 points per game serving as the team's sixth man as he came off the bench in all 33 games.

In addition to Lane and Evans, the other returners are McKnight, junior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) and sophomore guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.). The Mocs also welcome back senior forward Garrett Putman (Washington, D.C.), who earned a medical redshirt after missing all but the first four games last season due to injury. In 2011-12, Putman averaged 5.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

During the offseason, Darner, who earned his fourth SSC Coach of the Year accolade last season and is entering his eighth season at the helm of the Mocs, added five newcomers to its roster, including four transfers and one high school player.

Among the key newcomwers this season are senior guard Frank Adams (Stone Mountain, Ga.), who averaged over 20 points per game and scored 1,500 career points in three seasons at Young Harris College, junior forward Bubby Johnson (Waldorf, Md.), who is a transfer from Utah State University Eastern and junior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.), who sat out during the secodn semester last year after transfering from Gannon (Pa.) University. The other newcomers are junior guard Tyler Logan (Marlboro, Md.) and freshman forward Stephen Turner (McCordsville, Ind.).

As a team last season, the Mocs led the SSC and Division II in turnover margin as they had a margin of +6.8 and they also finished in the Top 10 nationally in scoring (84.9 points per game) and steals (10.9 per game) and was 13th nationally in assists (16.9) and 15th nationally in scoring margin (+10.4). The Mocs scored 80 or more points in 22 games, including topping the 90 point mark on 13 different occasions, including a school record stretch last season of seven straight games with 90-plus points. 

The Mocs season opening opponent, Delta State, opens this season looking to improve upon last season's 11-16 record. The 11-16 record marked the second consecutive losing season for the Statesmen and just its third losing season since the beginning of the 2003-04 campaign.

Second-year Statesmen head coach Jim Boone will look to three returning starters, six returning lettermen and several key newcomers to help them rebound after last season's campaign. 

Boone, who is entering his 28th season as a collegiate head coach and has a career record of 441-344, is known for being a strong defensive coach as the Statesmen allowed their opponents to score just 61.1 points per game, which was 10th-best in Division II and shoot just 41.3 percent from the field. In addition, the Statesmen, who were picked to finish fourth in the Preseason Gulf South Conference Coaches' Poll, outrebounded its foes by a little over four boards per contest and averaged 2.7 blocks per game. 

Leading the list of returners for the Statesmen are senior guard Cornel West and Mike Weems and sophomore guard Jack Madgen. Knight, who is entering his third season at DSU, averaged 9.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game last season, while Weems averaged 8.7 points per game and shot 38 percent from the 3-point line and made a team-best 48 treys and Madgen, who is a native of Williamstown, Australia, averaged 10.1 points and 3.7 assists per game a year ago and shot 40 percent from the floor, 36 percent from downtown and 74 percent at the line.

"Delta State has two good guards back from last season. They beat a Division I team (Mississippi Valley State) on its home court in an exhibition game," said Darner. "They like to control the tempo, so the key for us is to get them to play at our pace."

One player the Statesmen must find a replacement for is Terry Leake, Jr., who as a senior in 2012-13, led the team in both scoring (17.1 points) and rebounding (8.3 boards) and blocked a team-high 21 shots.

Boone will look toward several impact newcomers to fill the void left by Leake's departure. The impact newcomers are 6-foot-7 senior forward Willie Readus, who is a transfer from Jackson State and junior guard Alister Chisholm, who is a transfer from Hagerstown Community College. In the Statesmen's lone exhibition game at home on Monday against Mississippi Valley State, Readus led the way offensively as he scored 18 points and had nine boards in DSU's 78-68 win over the Delta Devils.

Meanwhile, FSC's opponent on Sunday, Arkansas-Monticello, returns two starters and four lettermen from last season's 16-11 team that finished 11-9 in the Great American Conference.

The Boll Weevils, who are from the GAC and before that were members of the GSC, opens the season on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. against FSC's SSC rival, Eckerd College, before facing the Mocs on Sunday afternoon.

UAM, who has posted six consecutive winning seasons, including winning 20 or more games in two of the last five seasons, was tabbed to finish fourth in the Preseason GAC Coaches' Poll. Fourth-year UAM head coach Allen Sharpe has posted a 51-33 mark with the Boll Weevils and is 257-88 in his 11th season as a collegiate coach. Prior to going to UAM, Sharpe spent seven seasons at Wallace State College in Hanceville, Ala.

Among the key returners for the Boll Weevils are senior post player Dayton Mickens and senior forward Brandon Sims. Mickens averaged 10.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game and blocked 26 shots a year ago, while Sims averaged 9.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. The other two returners are senior guard Josh Gibson (4.2 ppg) and sophomore guard Ryan Lensing (0.7 ppg).

One player Sharpe must find a replacement for this season is Division II Bulletin Honorable Mention All-American Kori Forge. Forge, who was a senior last season, averaged 19.7 points per game and scored a GAC-best 531 points and finished 28th nationally in scoring. On the season, Forge scored in double figures in 26 of 27 games and became the 25th member of the school's 1,000 Point Club. Forge closed out his career 21st all-time in scoring at UAM with 1,046 points.

With only four returning players from last season, Sharpe retooled his roster as he added nine newcomers, including seven transfers. One of those transfers is junior guard D'Audrio Patton, who scored in double figures in both of UAM's exhibition games as he tallied 17 points and 10 rebounds in UAM's 85-64 loss to Louisiana Tech and then scored 13 points in their 95-64 loss this past Monday at Arkansas State. Another newcomer, senior forward Brandon Wilson, who is a transfer from Grambling, scored 19 points and nine boards in the exhibition game against Louisiana Tech.

Saturday's game with Delta State will mark just the fourth-ever meeting between the two South Region schools and the first since the Statesmen picked up a 76-71 win in the first round of the 2003 NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament in Winter Park. FSC leads the all-time series, 2-1 and Saturday's game will be the first-ever in the series on Delta's home court. The Mocs will be facing UAM for the first time ever and it will be just the fifth time FSC has faced an opponent from the GAC. The last foe FSC faced from the GAC was in 2009 when the Mocs defeated Arkansas Tech, 95-92 in overtime in the semifinals of the NCAA D-II South Regional that was held at Jenkins Field House.

Following this weekend's action, the Mocs will open the home portion of its 2013-14 schedule next Friday, Nov. 15 with a 7:30 p.m. game against Warner. The game will be broadcast by the HBTV Sports Network, which is the official broadcast partner of Moccasin Athletics.

Click here for complete Moccasin game notes for "Down in the Delta" Challenge