http://www.ksuowls.com/news/2010/7/6/MBB...05153.aspx

Quote:will host Georgia Tech, several others during non-conference slate
by Scott Lipsky

7/6/2010 6:42:04 PM
Complete schedule

KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State Owls men’s basketball program unveiled their schedule for the 2010-2011 season on Tuesday, giving fans a glimpse of what is to come this winter.

Head coach Tony Ingle and his club will kick-off the 2010-2011 campaign with an exhibition game, when they host LaGrange on Tuesday, November 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the KSU Convocation Center. Their first regular season scrum takes place 10 days later, when they host Georgia Southwestern, also at 7:30 p.m.

The Fighting Owls precede the bulk of their 20-game Atlantic Sun Conference schedule with a challenging non-conference slate that includes a home date with local rival Georgia Tech on November 15. Their road games include contests at Iowa State, Creighton, Wyoming and Fordham. Tennessee-Chattanooga and Northern Arizona will also be hosted by the Owls at the Convocation Center for non-conference play.

The Owls begin A-Sun competition on December 16 when they visit Belmont in Nashville, Tenn., before going cross-town to face Lipscomb on December 18.

“This is the most competitive basketball schedule in our program’s history, we’re in our second year of being full-fledged Division I, and we want everyone around the country to know that we’re playing at the top level and will compete with some of the best that basketball has to offer,” Ingle said. “It makes me excited for our fans that we are hosting teams like Georgia Tech, Northern Arizona and Chattanooga, they deserve to see some top teams play us right here in the Convocation Center, and we’re glad to give that to them.”

The Owls return 11 players from their 2009-2010 roster, including sophomore Markeith Cummings, whose 17.4 points per game last season ranked fourth in the Atlantic Sun Conference and was third in the nation among all freshmen. The Owls went 13-20 overall, and 7-13 in A-Sun play, with the highlight of their season coming in the first round of the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament, when they knocked off top-seeded Lipscomb, 72-69, to advance to the semifinals.

Looks like an interesting schedule. Of course we all knew about the Tech game at home, probably the first sellout in Convocation history. Also looks like a couple tough home games with Chattanooga and Northern Arizona. Going to be an interesting season.

On a side note--finally something of substance to discuss. I hate the lull that happens every summer. I suppose the next biggest news we'll hear after this will be the findings of the football exploratory committee in September.

Anyways, what about our schedule? Do you think it will be as challenging as Ingle seems to think based off what he said in the article?

Tech at home... sold. I'll be there Monday, Nov 15th.

What's challenging at the level we're at right now is playing the ASun schedule and winning the conference. That's the end goal. I don't care about the OOC's as much. It's nice to get a few wins but these are hardly the Dukes or Kentucky's.

Anything is challenging for a team that is entering its 2nd year of Division 1 membership. We have yet to have a winning season, and we have yet to have a conference winning season, so I would say that calling our schedule challenging is very appropriate. The minute we win 25 games, then we can start talking about if our schedule is too soft. Until then every game we play is a huge challenge.

This schedule definitely has its difficulties, but I would say it is very similar to last year as far as games we have a chance of winning vs. games that we would simply have to get lucky.

It will be pretty amazing to play Tech at home. Hopefully the place will be truly packed - if I am not wrong we can fit in 4,800? Granted, most of those will be Tech fans, I'd imagine, but hopefully the home team can get a strong, loud contingent and make things difficult for what will be a much more talented Tech team.

They are still going to be very good. Even their lower level recruits are very very talented players. Put it this way - we might be able to win the game, but we won't be the most talented team on the court. That great thing in basketball is that there are more ways to win than simply out-talenting people.

http://www.ksuowls.com/news/2010/7/19/GE...02535.aspx

Owls are going to play five games in Canada as part of a summer preseason tour. These games are right around the corner (August 6 is first game). I am excited about these games because, like the story says, it gives the team a chance to jell and build some chemistry before the season starts. It will be interesting to see how we do against some allstar teams filled with some former collegiate players.

This is great news. Hopefully some of our new guys can show us what they have in these five games. Our starting five is pretty much set.. but we know very little about our bench.

Dixon
Woods
Cummings
Green
Heramb

McConnell as the "6th" man getting reps at the one and the two.
Gibson getting some minutes in the post.

I'm really looking forward to this because KSUOwls.com is going to have a live blog from each of the games in Canada. I'll be interested to see what kind of lineup combos Ingle puts on the floor trying to mix and match with this virtually being an early preseason slate for us.

As far as the Canadian teams are concerned, I did a little searching around on the internet and couldn't really find much at all about any of the teams. When you go to their websites you realize they're really organizations as opposed to a singular basketball team. However, good competition or bad, the experience our players can garner from this trip can and hopefully will go a long way in establishing team chemistry early on amongst the players in what once again will be a very young team.