Men’s basketball gets one vote in AP Top 25 poll, hosts exhibition against Ferris State Saturday
After racking up preseason accolades, the Central Michigan men’s basketball team has a chance to prove its worth at McGuirk Arena to begin the season.
CMU, which finished 23-9 last season, hosts Division II opponent Ferris State in an exhibition game at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in preparation for the Nov. 13 regular season-opener against Jacksonville State.
“Everyone’s really excited to finally get to play someone that’s not ourselves,” said senior forward John Simons. “We’ve got four seniors on our team that are going to be playing this year. This is our last shot, we get to play one last time together, so I think everybody’s really excited and expecting a big year.”
Outside of senior power forward Blake Hibbitts, who’s out for the season with a torn ACL, Head Coach Keno Davis said he expects the rest of the team to play Saturday.
Junior guard Braylon Rayson left Wednesday’s media day scrimmage with a leg cramp, while sophomore guard Josh Kozinski sat out the scrimmage.
“Kozinski’s been out awhile with an illness and from what it looked like with Rayson is he just cramped up during practice and it was just something he wasn’t able to work through,” Davis said. “Had it been a game, he probably would have been able to work through it.”
CMU enters the season as the favorites in the Mid-American Conference after winning the regular season title last season. The Chippewas also received one vote in the preseason Associated Press preseason rankings.
“We’re trying to stay away from all the hype, because last year we were picked to finish (near) last and we ended up finishing first,” said sophomore forward Luke Meyer. “Hype really doesn’t mean anything if you can’t back it up.”
The Ferris State Bulldogs were 23-9 in 2014-2015 and won their first exhibition game against Spring Arbor on Tuesday. They have an exhibition against Michigan State Monday before starting their regular season schedule.
