Men's basketball to host Slippery Rock prior to season opener
With the 2016-17 season a week away, the Central Michigan men’s basketball team will host an exhibition game against Division II opponent Slippery Rock at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at McGurik Arena.
The team held a closed scrimmage against Oakland University on Monday. Transfer point guard Marcus Keene scored 29 points while senior shooting guard Braylon Rayson added 20, according to a report from Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press.
After months of practices and scrimmages, head coach Keno Davis said the Chippewas are ready to play in front of their fans for the first time.
“The experience of playing in front of fans is important,” Davis said. “These guys haven’t all played in front of big crowds and sometimes you play different in front of a couple thousand people. I want them to play hard, play fast and just have fun.”
SRU finished last season with a 13-15 record and finished in 16th place in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Davis said he hasn’t watched much film on Slippery Rock because he wants to test his team and see how they do without a scouting report.
“I don’t know too much about them, but I think in the exhibitions you don’t want to scout too much,” he said. “You don’t want to give guys too much information on a team. You want your weaknesses exposed so that you can work on them and as the season goes on, you give them more and more information.”
Having lost three starters from last year’s team that finished 17-16, Davis said leadership will be key this season along with getting freshmen and transfer players acclimated quickly.
“We are getting experience for our younger players, but also trying to develop that chemistry we need,” he said. “It also is a good measuring stick for the coaches to be able to tell who can play this year and who can play big roles.There is still a lot of unknown, but I think there are a lot of great things coming for this team.”
The Chippewas begin their regular season at 7 p.m. next Friday against Indiana University Kokomo at McGuirk.
