Emporia State men’s basketball coach David Moe has a lot to figure out in the next 25 days leading up to the Hornets opener at Wichita State on Nov. 10.
The Hornets begin practice today with nine new players and their top six scorers from last season’s 13-16 team gone.
“We lost 98 percent of our stats from last year,” Moe said. “The guys that didn’t play a lot last year, I have a lot of confidence in this year. We have a great core who know how we do things and the guys coming in are willing to do whatever we ask them to do.”
The Hornets’ uncertainty is matched by optimism with the new players coming in. Two Division I transfers are expected to contribute. Senior Shang Ping transferred from Nebraska and junior Robert Moores transferred in from Albany to join a class of freshmen Luke Barnwell and Nick Gardner and three juco transfers: Lamar Wilbern, Jeremiah Box and Dusty Burdolski. Moe also brought in Tim Niles and Otis Scarver from DuPage College, a D-3 school.
“I think last year’s team has done a great job of recruiting this year’s players,” Moe said.” We don’t get everybody we recruit, but our players recruit players that have the right mentality and are going to fit into what we want to get done and those are hard-working guys who love basketball.”
Among the seven returning players, only Dustin Andrews, Spencer Allen, Jordan Stout and Alex Pyle appeared in the starting lineup last season, and the four have 11 starts between them.
Sophomore Matt Boswell, who played in 19 games last season, is the leading returning scorer at 3.7 points per game. Andrews played the most minutes, averaging 2.5 points in 16 minutes per game.
“It’s going to be really competitive the first few weeks of practice as guys are competing for spots,” Moe said.
Moe said his team has had as good a preseason as any team he has had in his seven years at Emporia State, and he’s definitely been looking forward to today.
“If you’re not optimistic about your team at this point, it’s tough to get that way,” Moe said. “I think a lot remains to be seen on how well we jell and play together. ... They still need to jell and I’ve got to find the right rotation and they still need coaching. But as far as attitude, effort and enthusiasm, we grade out high.”
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