Lipscomb basketball is officially here as the men’s team kicked off its 16th season Friday afternoon at noon in Allen Arena. The Lady Bisons will open their season with a game against Loyola (MD) tonight at 5 p.m.
The following preview is a rundown of last season as well as predictions for both the men’s and women’s upcoming season.
Last Season for men’s basketball
Last year, Lipscomb finished 12-21 (7-7) and advanced to the A-Sun semi-finals as the number six seed. Lipscomb was beaten by Stetson 96-75.
As a team, Lipscomb out-shot its opponents from the three-point line, making 331 to its opponents’ 305 made threes.
The Bisons were led by leading scorer and senior point guard, J. C. Hampton (15.9 PPG) and leading rebounder freshman forward Eli Pepper (7.8 RPG), who was also third in the A-Sun in rebounding. Sophomore guard Nathan Moran led the team in assists with (4.6 APG).
Outlook
Subtractions:
The Bisons lost J. C. Hampton and fellow senior forward Talbot Denny as both players transferred. Lipscomb will look to replace Hampton’s scoring. Denny redshirted last year due to injury.
Additions:
Four freshmen: guards Kenny Cooper, John Matt Merit and Michael Buckland and forward Kenny Bunton.
One transfer: guard Matt Rose from Samford University.
Coach Casey Alexander’s thoughts:
- “I don’t walk into this season, this year – at all thinking we’ve got holes.”
- “I think that we have depth. I think we have balance, and so that’s really the first time since we’ve been here that I knew that was the case.”
- “This is really the first time since we’ve been here that we’ve got players that were with the entire team and came to Lipscomb because they believed in the mission and the vision.”
- “We’re kind of past the change in culture and the change in philosophy and stuff like that.”
- “Both of those guys [Garrison Mathews and Eli Pepper] were really the recipients of opportunity last year when Denny and Josh went down… I thought both of them had really successful freshman seasons.”
- “We play fast and we’re gonna play with a lot of freedom offensively, but what we have to do is be more efficient.”
- “We’ve also got to be more stingy on defense this year.”
Prediction
Lipscomb will be lead by a mix of experienced seniors — Brett Wishon and Cam Miller, as well as the return of Josh Williams, juniors Nathan Moran, George Brammeier and Aaron Korn to go along with rising sophomores, Eli Pepper and Garrison Mathews.
The Bisons will do much of the same under Casey Alexander in regards to shooting the three and speeding up the tempo and pace of the game. The floor will be spread with shooters at nearly every position, with the exception of George Brammeier, who will serve as a high and low post presence for the Bisons. The Bisons will finish fourth in the A-Sun at 8-6 and 15-16 overall and host a first round game in the A-Sun Tournament.
Last Season for the Lady Bisons
The Lady Bisons finished last year with a last place record in the A-Sun at 2-12 and with an overall record of 5-25.
Lipscomb was lead by leading scorer and rebounder, senior forward and All-Conference player, Ashley Southern (18.1 PPG) and (9.4 RPG). The Bisons also had two senior sharpshooters in guards Chandler Cooper and Kelli Smith, who both lead the team in threes made 55 and 45, and threes attempted 136 and 130, respectively. The duo also combined to average 2.5 steal per game. Loren Cagle controlled the offense as she dished her way to 6.7 APG, which was good for eighth in the nation and first in the conference.
Outlook
Subtractions (4):
Guards Cooper and Smith and forward Southern, last year’s the offensive leaders, have all graduated. Kelsey Gregory, who redshirted last year as a sophomore, transferred.
Additions (10):
The Lady Bisons added four transfers, starting with forwards Loshaveon Jones and Laure Assena, to go along with the duo of transfer guards Meredith Lovelady and Auriana Broughton. Head coach Greg Brown also added depth in the backcourt with freshmen guards Carleigh Short, Emmy Allen, Lexi Manos, Lauren Rau and Kaylee Cotton, as well as freshman forward Emily Kmec.
Coach Brown’s thoughts:
- “We are excited to bring in four junior college players, which bring immediate experience and three of them played in the national tournament.”
- “Depth was one of the biggest reasons for bringing in a big class like that.”
- “We feel like each of the players we recruited filled a gap we had.”
- “We want to be very efficient with what we’re doing. We certainly want to try and get up and down the floor.”
- “When we were recruiting, we looked at what we needed. Some of things we added are definitely what we needed in conference. We gotta rebound the ball better, we gotta take care of the ball, and we gotta shoot it a little bit better.”
Prediction
The Lady Bison will struggle early with chemistry as most teams do who have such a large offseason overhaul of a roster. Losing the aforementioned seniors from last year’s five-win team does not help, as their production will be difficult to replace, but something Lipscomb lacked last year was depth and now they have it.
The 10 new players that Greg Brown brought into the program immediately give Lipscomb a much deeper bench than last year. Also, Brown has one of the best floor generals in the country in Loren Cagle, who has been named to the preseason Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List (Nation’s Top Point Guards). It may take a few games for the Lady Bisons to settle in but if the new pieces can mesh with old, an improvement should be seen. The Lady Bisons will finish seventh in the A-Sun with a 4-11 record, but they will surpass last year’s win total of five, finishing with a 8-21 record.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics