10/29/2019 | Men’s Basketball

PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico men’s basketball team will take on the University of Tennessee this evening at 5 p.m. on the SEC Network.

The Hounds will make the trip to Knoxville, Tenn. for the first of three exhibition games throughout the season against Division I opponents. Tonight’s game will also be the first live action of the season for the Volunteers who spent the entire 2018-19 season ranked in the top 10 of the Division I national rankings.

Wednesday evening’s match-up will pit the 2019 Naismith College Coach of the Year Recipient Rick Barnes against Eastern New Mexico head basketball coach Tres Segler, who coached under Barnes as a graduate assistant during his time at the University of Texas from 2007-2009.

LAST SEASON

Eastern New Mexico finished the 2018-19 season with a record of 13-14 and earned the no. 4 seed in the Lone Star Conference Postseason Tournament after a conference record of 10-8. That mark is just the second time the Greyhounds have finished above .500 in conference play since the 2005-06 season.

Devin Pullum scored the most points in a single game in the last 20 years for the Greyhounds with a 39-point effort against Texas A&M-Commerce and Chukuka Emili set the record for most blocks in a single game with six swats against Western New Mexico. The Greyhounds won at Tarleton State for the first time since 1996 and earned the highest seed in the Lone Star Conference Postseason Tournament for the program in the modern LSC era.

Coach Segler’s best season as head coach in his three years at the helm came in heart-breaking fashion at the LSC Postseason Tournament to Tarleton State on a game-winning shot with 0.6 seconds remaining on the clock in overtime. Eastern New Mexico was searching for it’s first win in the LSC Postseason Tournament since 2003.

SOME OLD FACES

Eastern New Mexico will return a solid core of players for the 2019-20 season after last year’s record-setting season including junior guard Devin Pullum. Pullum was named Second Team All-Lone Star Conference last year after leading the Hounds with an average of 12.7 points per contest and finished seventh in the LSC with 3.3 assists per game.

Pullum will return for his third season in the Green-and-Silver and will be joined in the projected starting line-up by fellow returnee Isaiah Murphy, who averaged 7.9 points per game and 3.3 rebounds per game. Fellow seniors Darius Sawyer and Deng Kuany will provide quality depth off of the Greyhound bench in 2019-20 after serving as vital pieces to a deep Greyhound rotation last season.

The Hounds finished fifth in the LSC with an average of 77.9 points per contest and led the league with a free-throw percentage of 74.4 percent for the season. Eastern finished the season with a rebounding margin of exactly 0.0, but allowed the third-worst opponent field goal percentage in the LSC at 43.7 percent.

SOME NEW FACES

Coach Segler and staff set out on the recruiting trail this offseason with the hopes of continuing to improve the offensive consistency for the Hounds and looked for some pieces to continue to build the Hounds into a tougher defensive unit. Junior college transfers Marvin Mapaga and Yosnier Cobas both possess the offensive skills and defensive tenacity that the Greyhounds would like to offer opponents throughout the season.

Mapaga averaged 9.8 points per game and ranked seventh in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference with 35 total blocks last season at Arizona Western College. Cobas averaged 12.8 points per game and 9.6 rebounds per game last season at Colombia Junior College and was named All-CVC First Team after shooting 63.8 percent from the field and led his squad to a record of 21-8.

Mapaga and Cobas will bring dynamic skill sets to the front court for the Hounds while fellow junior college transfer Ibn Zaid will operate the backcourt from the point guard position. Zaid joins the Hounds after leading Gavilan College to a record of 17-2 last season and average just over 14 points per game after being named First Team All-Conference as a freshman.

Juniors Jose Serrano and Brandon Meadows will also bring depth to the Hound lineup after quality junior college careers of their own and both possess the offensive abilities that were lacking at times for the Hound bench last season.

A LOOK AT THE SCHEDULE

Eastern New Mexico will take on the University of Tennessee and the University of New Mexico in exhibition games before officially opening up the 2019-20 season at the LSC/RMAC Conference Challenge in Durango, Colo. against New Mexico Highlands and Fort Lewis College on Nov. 9-10. The Greyhounds will then wrap up their exhibition slate with a visit to UTEP on Nov. 15th before getting play in the expanded Lone Star Conference started on Nov. 23rd on the road against West Texas A&M.

Eastern will wrap up non-conference play with games against Metro State and Regis on Nov. 29-30 in Denver, Colo. before returning home to Portales for it’s home opener against Wayland Baptist on Dec. 7th. Eastern New Mexico will then begin a new Lone Star Conference schedule that will see the Hounds face off with 17 total teams over the course of the season with the hopes of qualifying for the LSC Postseason Tournament on March 5-7.