Men’s Basketball Opens Season with a Weekend of Practices

VIDEO: Interview with Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young after first practice -- 10-12-2012

STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern Men’s Basketball kicked off the 2012 season with three solid days of practice at Hanner Fieldhouse. GSU hit the court for the first time as a team on Friday night (October 12th) and worked throughout the weekend on installation of Coach Young’s system.

I’m really pleased with the first three days out here on the court,” said Head Coach Charlton “C.Y.” Young. “This is really foreign territory for our staff to have a lot of returning veteran guys that understand our system entering a season. That helps things run a lot smoother on the court and we get more work done.”

The 2012 Eagles are led by junior Eric Ferguson’s 15.4 points per game a year ago. The NBA prospect has 835 career points and is poised to become the 39th member of the 1,000 point club at Georgia Southern. Ferguson leads a squad which features three returning starters and six players that averaged over 10 minutes per game last season.

“Hopefully we can compete early and that’s what we want to do right out of the gate,” said Young. “Our program is becoming established where our coaches don’t have to be the only ones holding the guys accountable, the older guys are stepping up and holding the younger players accountable. Because of that, I think our program has a chance to be really successful.”

Cameron Baskerville is back for his senior season with the Eagles with 87 career games played as well as three-point threats Jelani Hewitt and Tré Bussey back for their junior campaigns. Big-men Marvin Baynham and Sam Mike are also returning for their junior seasons in Statesboro.

The Eagles have a stable of three returning sophomores with Jessie Pernell back at guard after playing 29 games with 14.5 minutes per contest. Kameron Dunnican grabbed 40 rebounds a year ago in his freshman season. Tracy Ham, Jr. wears #4 again this season entering his sophomore campaign.

The 2012 Eagles feature five newcomers including a pair of transfers with Division I experience. C.J. Reed was the 2009-10 MEAC and National HBCU Player of the Year in his junior season at Bethune-Cookman. With 100 career games played, Reed has 16.5 points per game and 4.3 assists per game, making him one of the most experienced transfers ever to join the Eagles.

“C.J. has played a lot of basketball games and has a very high basketball I.Q.,” said Young. “He’s a coach’s son and he has really picked up our system well.”

The Eagles other newcomers include Brian Holmes, a junior transfer who played 16 games as a freshman at North Florida before moving to Santa Fe Community College and then to Statesboro with the Eagles. Three freshmen round-out the Eagle lineup with Cleon Roberts (Miami, Fla.), Chris Daniels (Decatur, Ga.) and Cole Rives (Suwanee, Ga.) starting their collegiate careers this season.

Season tickets for the 2012 season are on sale starting at $59 for general admission seats. Reserved seats are $69 for the upper level and $109 in lower level of Hanner Fieldhouse. Georgia Southern faculty and staff receive a discount when purchasing tickets. Get your seat in Hanner by calling the Georgia Southern Athletics Ticket Office at 1-800-GSU-WINS.

The Eagles open the 2012 season with two games on the road against Valparaiso an Charlotte in early November. GSU opens the home schedule on November 16th against Webber International and hosts Elon in an early-season SoCon battle on November 28th at 7 p.m.

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Category: Men's Basketball

Published on Monday, 15 October 2012 11:29