Sport in world

Exhibition season opens Thursday night against Westminster

November 26, 2007 on 8:20 pm | In Athletics |

MACOMB, Ill. - The Western Illinois University men’s basketball team will put months of preseason preparations to the test at their first exhibition game Thursday night, tipping off against Westminster College following the women’s game which starts at 6 p.m.

Westminster, in Fulton, Mo., is a member of the NCAA Division III’s St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Blue Jays finished at 15-9 last season and return 11 letterwinners and three starters. Matt Mitchell, head coach since 1998 and director of athletics since 2005, spent the 1987-88 and 1988-89 seasons as an assistant on Jack Margenthaler’s staff with the Leathernecks. He played collegiate basketball at Valparaiso before transferring to Arkansas where he played for Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson. He received his undergraduate degree in education from Arkansas in 1987 and then completed a graduate degree in recreation and park administration from Western Illinois University in 1990.

In the first of two exhibition games, fifth-year Leatherneck head coach Derek Thomas will be looking to solidify opportunities for his nine newcomers.

“Right now we’re trying to fit everyone into his role,” said Thomas. “Guys are fitting the pieces into place and growing into their roles. I feel like we have a team that fits pieces together. And we for once have a team that can really shoot the ball well.”

The group of newcomers Thomas and his staff have put together, which includes four transfer students and five freshmen, have increased the squad’s age and improved its perimeter play.

“One of the reasons we had so many close games last year is because we were so young,” said Thomas. “Nobody who won a first-round NCAA Tournament game last year was playing more than one freshman. We were playing three or four, and then a lot of sophomores on top of that. Our recruiting class closes that gap so we’ll be able to compete with some of those older teams.”

Thomas expects the Leathernecks’ perimeter play to be one of the strongest he has seen at Western Illinois as preseason all-conference honoree David Jackson returns, as does point guard James Washington who received a medical redshirt after appearing in six games last season.

“David is going to be obviously a big piece to the puzzle this year,” said Thomas. “He won’t have as many duties this year so I’m expecting him to have a better year. We now have other guys who can take the load off and do some of the other things.”

Washington started five games last year as a true freshman but lost the rest of his season to an injury. He will resume the primary ball-handling duties for Jackson, who led the team in scoring and rebounding last year.

“Losing James changed the whole makeup of our team,” said Thomas. “It’s hard for anyone to play without a real point guard and turn some guys who are scorers into ball handlers. It took away from our scoring, our turnovers went up and it hurt our confidence. It was a huge loss. In the time he was in our lineup, we had a lot of confidence in ourself because we had guys who were able to do what they’re good at. James was there to direct traffic and free those guys up and he was tough.

“Having a primary ball handler who can direct traffic will solve a lot of those close-game issues. That is such an immense job that has to be done. It’s like the Colts losing Peyton Manning.

“The guys that were part of those close games last year have grown and matured just from being through it. If you’ve been through that many close games you can’t help but learn from them. Not that we won’t have close games this year, but going into this year we are a lot more confident and feel better about ourselves. We know how to react in those situations now.”

Originaly from Source