Experience key for Spring Hill College

The youth of last season has become the experience of the upcoming season for the Spring Hill men's basketball team.

Coach Robert Thompson will still lead a young team this year, but several of those young players gained valuable experience in winning 11 of their final 13 games last season.

"We're returning everybody except Jeremy Price," Thompson said. "There are still a lot of young guys on the team, but they are guys who played a lot for us last year and, by the end of the year, we were playing pretty well.

"I'm excited about this group. I like this group. I really expect us, by the time we get to conference play, to be playing well."

The Badgers open the season at home at 2 p.m. Saturday against Southeastern Bible College and return to action at 7 p.m. Monday against Auburn-Montgomery at the Outlaw Recreation Center.

"I'm a little worried about who will step up and be that scorer from the outside for us," Thompson said of losing Price. "Marcus (Coleman) gives us an outside shooter, but we need someone to fill that spot from Jeremy."

Coleman, a preseason All-GCAC selection, scored 14.7 points a game last year to lead the team. He'll receive help from Chris Dees Jr. (7.8 points, 3.6 rebounds a game), Owen McNally (7.5, 6.1), Nick Brown (8.9, 7.5) and Antonio Burch (7.0, 4.2).

"I know that by the end of the year we've got a chance to be good," Thompson said. "These guys have a little air about them, a little swagger, because of how we finished last year."

Thompson said he has been impressed with the early play of Brown, a 6-foot-8 presence in the lane. Thompson said he also has been pleased with the work of Dees, Burch and Tyler Schwab and is looking for the opportunity to have point guards Burch and Schwab on the floor at the same time.

"We've got a tough non-conference schedule, like we always do, with a good mix of opponents to help us get ready for the conference season," Thompson said.

Nationally ranked teams such as AUM and Faulkner University are on the schedule, as are NCAA teams South Alabama and Southern Miss.

Spring Hill Men's Basketball Schedule:

-- NOVEMBER: 7 Southeastern Bible, 9 AUM, 19 at South Alabama, 20 Talladega, 23 at AUM, 28 at Southern Miss.

-- DECEMBER: 1 at Southeastern Louisiana, 4 Concordia-Selma, 12 at Samford, 16 St. Thomas, 18 Faulkner University, 30 at Jackson State.

-- JANUARY: 4 at Concordia-Selma, 7 William Carey, 9 Southern-New Orleans, 11 at Faulkner University, 14 at Xavier-New Orleans, 16 at Dillard, 21 LSU-Shreveport, 23 Tougaloo, 25 at Belhaven, 28 at Loyola, 30 at Mobile.

-- FEBRUARY: 4 Xavier, 6 at William Carey, 8 at Southern-New Orleans, 11 at Tougaloo, 13 Dillard, 18 Belhaven, 21 at LSU-Shreveport, 25 vs. Loyola, 27 vs. Mobile.