Young ‘Cats picked fourth in PBC

    After a successful spring season and an entertaining fall kick off, the GCSU men’s basketball team is gearing up for another exciting season. The Bobcats placed second in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament last spring, finishing the season with a 19-10 record.
    This year the Bobcats have been picked fourth in the pre-season PBC poll.
    “I’m excited about this season. I think, as a coach, any time you think you have a chance to have a good team it’s exciting,” said head coach Terry Sellers, who will be entering his fifteenth season with the Bobcat basketball team. “We’ve had a good pre-season and we have a lot of really good young men to work with. The potential is there for us to have a good season so we’re all looking forward to it.”
    Pre-season for the men’s team has been packed with practices, scrimmages and exhibitions, finding the rhythm between new players and returning athletes. This years team will introduce several new players including Justin Brown, Chuck Eason and Jorge Candeo-Martinez, the 6-foot 11-inch transfer student from Medellin, Columbia. The new players are just as pumped about the season as Sellers.
    “This is my first time at a university, so I’ve never gotten the university experience,” said Brown, a transfer student from Manatee Community College. “I want to feel at home and have all that fan support. Our team gets along really well so I’m just excited to play with them.”
    Aaron Clark, a returning player and GCSU senior, is also looking forward to seeing how things play out between returning and new players.
    “Getting that chemistry takes time but it’s still really exciting,” said Clark.
    As for stand-out players this season, Sellers says that instead of a few stand-outs, having a deep team and relying on returning players will help give the Bobcats an advantage on the court.
    Return players, like Clark have quite a reputation to live up to this season. Clark was named All Conference Player at the end of last season and was also named a Pre-Season All Conference Player this year as well as being the leading scorer for the team. Junior Shaun Keaton will also be returning after leading the team in free-throws last year and finishing second in steals.
    “Those players who contributed to last season, those are the guys we’re counting on pretty heavily,” says Sellers. “I’m hoping our team will develop and we’ll have a deeper team than we have in the past. Being able to have more players able to step in.”
    Brown echoes the coaches hopes, saying that this years team has enough players who play the same position to be able to give tired players a break during games.
    As for pre-season, aside from traditional conditioning, Brown says that Sellers has been focusing on team unity and free throws.
    “This is my first year, so I’m getting to know the plays. Other people have been here for years so I’m still getting used to the plays,” says Brown. “Free throws are also a big thing. Coach (Sellers) is making us do a lot of free throws. Like at the end of practice we do 100 free throws before we leave. At some of our past scrimmages, it’s worked. We’ve been shooting better than the other team.”
    The Bobcats play their first conference game at home in the Centennial Center on Nov. 28 when they host Clayton State University.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 9 2007. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry