Returning Veterans Ready To Lead 2016 Team
10/19/2015 4:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball
But Sam Houston head coach Jason Hooten has confidence his 2015-16 squad can continue the program's success and believes there is plenty of talent to be found on the court for the Bearkats.
Jabari Peters earned second team All-Southland honors after a 26-win season a year ago. DeMarcus Gatlin, Michael Holyfield and Kaheem Ransom all were third team selections. The four each ranked among the squad's top five in scoring.
“We lost a pretty good group,” Hooten said. “Anytime you have a program that you feel is established, you always have guys that are waiting in the wings and we have guys returning that played quite a bit last year.”
Those returning players include guards Paul Baxter, Dakarai Henderson and Jamal Williams and center Aurimas Majauskus. The lettermen are blending with a solid group of newcomers as Sam Houston preseason practice continues daily at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
Baxter, Henderson and Majauskas finished the 2014-15 season with the best three-point shooting percentages on the team and all three averaged more than eight points per game, giving the Bearkats a solid returning offensive trio.
“We have a lot of talent here, “ Majauskas said. “A lot of guys can score. We've just got to get everyone on the same page.”
While Sam Houston will be tough to guard on the perimeter, the team must replace some of their best defenders.
“This year we know we lost some height,” Baxter said. “We lost big Mike Holyfield. That's a lot of rebounds. We'all all have to rebound.”
Baxter will be in his fourth year as a starter for the Kats. Hooten is excited to see guys like Henderson, Williams and Majauskas taking on bigger roles this next season.
“They understand our program and they know our offense front and back,” Hooten said. “Obviously there is more pressure on them and more expectations put on them now rather than coming off the bench. Anytime you do that it's kind of a new job. We want to take it day-by-day and the goal for this team is to continually get better on a daily basis.”
The Bearkats have reached the Southland Conference tournament championship game both of the last two years. Hooten expects to make it back again but knows it will be a challenging process.
“As a coach, we all have expectations,” Hooten said. “We've finished in the top three in our conference nine of the past 10 years, so that expectation is always there, but I think every team is difference so you treat every team differently.”
Sam Houston faces a challenging non-conference schedule, opening the schedule on November 14 at SMU and facing teams like California, Texas Tech and UC-Irvine in the early going.
“With the non-conference schedule we face, we certainly will know a lot about ourselves when Southland play rolls around,” Hooten said. “That's just going to prepare us better for conference.”
Sam Houston's first home game will be Tuesday, November 17, when the Bearkats play host to Saint Thomas at 6:30 p.m.
