Basketball season tickets are currently available to purchase! Click here to be a part of another exciting @EKUHoops season!

Live Stats I Live Tweets

RICHMOND, Ky. – The Eastern Kentucky University men's basketball team will host Georgetown College in an exhibition on Friday night at McBrayer Arena. Tip is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
 
Admission to the exhibition is free.
 
The Colonels open the regular season at Rice on Friday, November 10, in Houston.
 
EKU experienced its share of adversity in 2016-17; however, as head coach Dan McHale said: "Adversity causes some teams to break, other teams to break through."
 
The Colonels appear to fall in the latter category.
 
EKU won its final two games of the 2016-17 season, including a 68-65 victory over eventual OVC Tournament champion Jacksonville State on February 23. The Colonels were then able to keep their core group of players together over the offseason.
 
Five of EKU's top six scorers return for 2017-18, including a pair of Preseason All-OVC selections in junior forward Nick Mayo and sophomore guard Asante Gist.
 
Mayo and Gist formed one of the top, young inside-out duos in the country last season. Mayo was voted first team All-OVC for the second straight season after finishing the regular season ranked among the OVC's leaders in scoring (fifth / 18.5 points-per-game), rebounding (12^th / 6.5 rebounds-per-game), assists (15^th / 2.8 assists-per-game), blocks (third / 1.4 blocks-per-game), field goal percentage (12^th / 50.4%), three-point field goal percentage (12^th / 39.0%) and free throw percentage (14^th / 77.4%). Gist was voted to the OVC All-Newcomer Team after breaking the EKU freshman points record (494) and finishing the year with 15.9 points-per-game and 3.9 assists-per-game averages.
 
With Mayo back to patrol the paint, Gist manning the perimeter and a slew of talented returners and newcomers thrown into the mix, this could be the year the Colonels return to the upper echelon of the OVC.
 
"I love the fact that we're so balanced from top to bottom," McHale said. "This is easily the most athletic team that we've had since I've been here. And it's a very deep team. We can easily play 10 or 11 guys and we finally can press the way I've always wanted to press."
 
McHale also likes what he sees from the Colonels off the court.
 
"I'm having more fun with these guys than with any team I've ever been around," he said. "They're just a special group. I knew by how well we played at the end of last season, and by how hungry our returners were over the summer, that once we added the freshmen and the guys sitting out … this was going to be a special group."
 
Below is a position-by-position look at the 2017-18 Colonels.
 
Guards
 

Gist enters the season as the leader of the EKU backcourt. The native of East Orange, New Jersey led all OVC freshmen in both scoring and assists last year, and he only got better as the season progressed. During conference play, he ranked eighth in the league in scoring (17.3 points-per-game) and seventh in assists (3.8 assists-per-game). Gist finished the regular season as one of only seven freshmen in the country to average 15.5-plus points and 3.5-plus assists-per-game, joining the likes of Washington's Markelle Fultz, N.C. State's Dennis Smith, Jr. and Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox.
 
McHale is looking forward to seeing the sophomore version of Asante Gist in action.
 
"Asante got thrown into the fire last year as a freshman," McHale said. "He got a lot better as the year went on, and that's going to carry over. You feel a lot better with a sophomore point guard than you do with a freshman point guard. Asante is primed and ready to lead this team. That's something I've really challenged him to be – a leader. And he's really embraced that."
 
Gist will be joined in the backcourt by redshirt senior Dillon Avare. Avare transferred to EKU from Louisville in the spring of 2016, and the graduate student ranked second on the team in three-pointers (62) and fifth on the team in scoring (6.5 points-per-game) last season.
 
"Dillon had a great junior year, and his experience and leadership will be invaluable to this team," McHale said.
 
The return of redshirt sophomore Dujuanta Weaver will also bolster the backcourt. Weaver missed all of last season with an injury, but the defensive guru from Louisville is healthy now and McHale is very excited to have him back.
 
"Tay's return totally changes the dynamic of our team," McHale said. "You'll see it with his defensive prowess. When he's out there, everyone else elevates their defensive intensity because they see how hard he works. He's definitely the head of the snake when it comes to defense, and he's also a very talented offensive player."
 
McHale also noted two freshmen who could see significant minutes in the backcourt this season.
 
Dedric Boyd: "Dedric is just a natural scorer. He can really score in bunches. Once he picks up his defense, he'll be a total player."
 
JacQuess Hobbs: "JacQuess is a great on-ball defender and he's going to be a fan favorite for a long time because of how hard he plays."
 
Junior Kirkland Humphrey and freshmen Cameron Carmical and Mason Cooper will add depth at the guard position.
 
Wings
 
Circumstances last year forced senior Zach Charles to move from the four to the three-spot, and McHale now calls that a blessing in disguise. 

 
"He learned the position, and he was really good at it," McHale said.
 
Charles – a 6-7 native of Mesquite, Texas – averaged 7.0 points and 6.5 rebounds-per-game last season, and he will likely remain at the wing position this season.
 
"Zach is a tremendous small forward with his length," McHale said. "He's got a 7'5" wingspan, and he's really improved his outside shot and ball handling over the offseason."
 
Two freshman will also see substantial time at the wing position: Peyton Broughton, a 6-5 native of London, Kentucky who scored over 3,000 career high school points, and A.J. Youngman, a 6-5 native of Peoria, Illinois.
 
Broughton and Youngman, while playing the same position, bring different styles to the floor.
 
"Peyton is more of a slasher / athlete who can really rebound the ball well for his size," McHale said. "A.J. is as good a knock-down shooter as I've seen in a really long time."
 
Forwards
 
Mayo enters his junior season on pace to become one of EKU's all-time greats. Last year, he became the first Colonel ever to reach 1,000 career points as a sophomore.
 
His consistency and versatility is stunning. The native of Oakland, Maine enters this season having scored in double figures in 34 consecutive games, dating back to his freshman campaign. At 6-9 and 240 pounds, he ranked in the top-15 in the OVC in assists last season (2.8 assists-per-game). He is also a career 43.1% three-point shooter (47-of-109).
 
What's even scarier for opponents? "Nick is probably 60% better this year than he was last year," McHale said. "He dedicated himself in the weight room this summer and increased his vertical leap to over 40 inches. He's filled out even more, and he's really been working on all facets of his game – his outside shot, his post work and his elbow work. Believe it or not, he's even more of a force than he has been his first couple of seasons."
 
The arrival of Jackson Davis should compliment Mayo in the paint, and also relieve some double-team pressure.
 
Davis – a 6-8 transfer from Butler – was a star at nearby Lafayette High School, where he was a finalist for the coveted Kentucky Mr. Basketball award in 2014.
 
Davis' skill and energy are expected to play a big role for the Colonels this season.
 
"Jackson is a tremendous rebounder," McHale said. "He's probably one of the best rebounders the OVC has seen since Kenneth Faried. He just has a nose for the ball. But he can also score it and he can shoot it. He's coming off knee surgery this summer, but we hope to have him ready to go by the beginning of the year."
 

Sophomore DeAndre Dishman – a 6-6 graduate of Bryan Station High School in Lexington – will also be a major factor in the paint for the Colonels this season. Dishman started seven games last season and averaged 5.9 points-per-game while leading the team in field goal percentage (61.5%).
 
"DeAndre has really worked on his game – his free-throw shooting, his body, his athleticism," McHale said. "He's healthy again, and he adds a different dimension to this team with his toughness, his experience and his size."
 
Sophomore Lachlan Anderson – a 6-8 stretch forward from Sydney, Australia – should also see an expanded role this season.
 
"Lachlan has been shooting the ball well from outside, and he really brings a lot of the intangibles that you need," McHale said.
 
Schedule
 
Road games at Rice, Ole Miss, Western Kentucky, Oregon State, Northern Kentucky and Marshall highlight a rugged non-conference portion of the 2017-18 schedule.
 
In all, EKU's schedule features 11 teams that played in a national postseason tournament last year. Nine of the Colonels' opponents won 20 or more games a year ago.
 
"It's a tough schedule and a lot of miles," McHale said. "We open at Rice and Ole Miss, which is probably the hardest start we've had in a long time. We follow that up with west coast trips to Las Vegas and Oregon State, which might wear us out a little bit, but they're great experiences for our guys. We also go on the road for rivalry games at Western Kentucky, Northern Kentucky and Marshall. Those are great games for the fan bases. We're going to have fun with all the travel, and it's going to prepare us to be playing our best basketball come late February / early March."