Mark Byington led the Eagles to their first conference championship game since 1992.
Georgia Southern Kicks off Basketball Season with Hoops Breakfast
10/21/2015 2:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The season starts in November for both the men and women’s basketball programs
STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern athletics and the Statesboro Convention and Visitor's Bureau officially kicked off basketball season with the Basketball Coaches Breakfast Wednesday morning in Hanner Fieldhouse.
Local businessmen and businesswomen and Eagle fans had breakfast on the Hanner Fieldhouse arena floor and heard from Statesboro mayor Jan Moore, Director of Athletics Tom Kleinlein, women's basketball coach Kip Drown and men's basketball coach Mark Byington about the upcoming season.
The Eagle women's team returns four starters and 13 letterwinners from last season, including leading scorers Angel McGowan (13.1 ppg) and Patrice Butler (12.2 ppg). Drown, who took over the program in March, spoke of how passionate the Statesboro community is about Georgia Southern and the expectations of excellence for everything the University does.
"People in Statesboro love Southern, and I want our kids to understand that when you step on this floor, you have to put a product on the floor that is worthy of that kind of passion," said Drown. "I have three goals for us this year. Number one is for our kids to say when they get finished, 'that's the greatest team chemistry I've ever been a part of.' Number two is for us to get to a .500 record… right now, in terms of our process, that's our second goal. My third goal is that we qualify for the Sun Belt Tournament this year."
The men's program has two starters and four lettermen back from last season's 22-9 team. The 2014-15 campaign saw the Eagles sell out Hanner Fieldhouse multiple times, post a 20-win season for the first time in nearly 10 years and advance to their conference championship game for the first time since 1992.
With 11-of-12 student-athletes who are freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores on the 2015-16 roster, Georgia Southern is one of the youngest teams in the country. Byington said the Eagles are motivated by being so close to a championship last season after falling by two points to Georgia State in the Sun Belt title game.
"It's a motivating thing for us," said Byington "We were an inch away from winning the whole thing, and now we have to figure out a way to overcome that inch we couldn't overcome last year. We're extremely young but talented, and we're going to be fun to coach and watch grow."
Season tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at GSEagles.com/tickets. Season ticket options are available for both general admission and reserved seating. Fans can enjoy chair-back seats in the reserved sections for $90 a season ticket for either men's or women's basketball. Alternatively, general admission season tickets are $65 and are located behind the baskets on bleachers. A combo package is also available for $120 and includes both men's and women's basketball contests.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, visit GSEagles.com/tickets.
Local businessmen and businesswomen and Eagle fans had breakfast on the Hanner Fieldhouse arena floor and heard from Statesboro mayor Jan Moore, Director of Athletics Tom Kleinlein, women's basketball coach Kip Drown and men's basketball coach Mark Byington about the upcoming season.
The Eagle women's team returns four starters and 13 letterwinners from last season, including leading scorers Angel McGowan (13.1 ppg) and Patrice Butler (12.2 ppg). Drown, who took over the program in March, spoke of how passionate the Statesboro community is about Georgia Southern and the expectations of excellence for everything the University does.
"People in Statesboro love Southern, and I want our kids to understand that when you step on this floor, you have to put a product on the floor that is worthy of that kind of passion," said Drown. "I have three goals for us this year. Number one is for our kids to say when they get finished, 'that's the greatest team chemistry I've ever been a part of.' Number two is for us to get to a .500 record… right now, in terms of our process, that's our second goal. My third goal is that we qualify for the Sun Belt Tournament this year."
The men's program has two starters and four lettermen back from last season's 22-9 team. The 2014-15 campaign saw the Eagles sell out Hanner Fieldhouse multiple times, post a 20-win season for the first time in nearly 10 years and advance to their conference championship game for the first time since 1992.
With 11-of-12 student-athletes who are freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores on the 2015-16 roster, Georgia Southern is one of the youngest teams in the country. Byington said the Eagles are motivated by being so close to a championship last season after falling by two points to Georgia State in the Sun Belt title game.
"It's a motivating thing for us," said Byington "We were an inch away from winning the whole thing, and now we have to figure out a way to overcome that inch we couldn't overcome last year. We're extremely young but talented, and we're going to be fun to coach and watch grow."
Season tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at GSEagles.com/tickets. Season ticket options are available for both general admission and reserved seating. Fans can enjoy chair-back seats in the reserved sections for $90 a season ticket for either men's or women's basketball. Alternatively, general admission season tickets are $65 and are located behind the baskets on bleachers. A combo package is also available for $120 and includes both men's and women's basketball contests.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, visit GSEagles.com/tickets.
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