COMPLETE 2013-14 MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE
PINE BLUFF -- UAPB Golden Lions men's basketball team preparing for the 2013-14 campaign. On Friday night, the team will host Midnight Madness at H.O. Clemmons Gym. The Golden Lions open the season on November 8-11 at the HBCU Tip-Off Classic in Philips Arena in Atlanta, GA.
Despite losing some of his key players, head coach George Ivory is very excited about this year's team. Among the losses for UAPB are forward Mitch Anderson, guard Lazabian Jackson and All-SWAC selection Terrell Kennedy.
Kennedy was the Golden Lions leading scorer last season with 13.3 points per game. He also averaged five rebounds per game. Jackson and Anderson were third and fourth on the team in scoring averaging 11.9 and 7.5 points each per game. Anderson also had 4.8 rebounds per game and Jackson grabbed 4.5.
Even with those losses, UAPB has solid core of returnees, led by 2012 All-SWAC players Davon Haynes and Daniel Broughton.
Haynes was second in scoring last season, averaging 11.9 points per game. He also led the team in rebounding with 6.9 per contest. "Davon is one of the most outstanding athletic players in the conference," said Ivory. "He brings a lot of excitement to the game."
Broughton averaged 7.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last season. "Daniel is a great inside player with outside ability as well," Ivory mentioned.
Joining the group of core returnees is point guard Tevin Hammond. Hammond averaged 7.4 points and three rebounds per game. However, this most important role was as a distributor. He led the lead assists with 127.
Coach Ivory said that with the talent he has coming back there is room for improvement with rebounding on both ends of the floor. Ivory wants to pick up the pace this season, bringing a more up-tempo style to the floor. The mission is to compete hard every game and keep pursuing a Conference Championship.
As usual, the pre-SWAC schedule is nothing short of "brutal". However, Coach Ivory sees the benefits of playing a challenging schedule early . He explained, "playing a schedule like this give will help us when it comes to conference play."
