McNeese men’s basketball squad eager to start new season

LAKE CHARLES – The new look McNeese Cowboys, under the direction of first-year head coach John Aiken, will tip-off the 2021-22 season on Tuesday with a visit to SMU followed by a Thursday contest at TCU.

With 12 new faces on the team and numerous hours of gelling and practicing against each other, the Cowboys are eager to see some unfamiliar jerseys.

“It’s been good. It’s been a long grind, obviously,” said Aiken who will be entering his fourth season on the Pokes sideline after being promoted to the head coaching spot when Heath Schroyer stepped away to focus on the athletic director job. “We’ve been going at it since June and so this last week we really started to hone in on SMU. Today (Thursday) will be a lot of prep for us.”

McNeese has battled a few injuries during preseason camp, but the team will be ready to go come next week.

“We’re finally getting healthy,” said Aiken. “That’s been a big key for us is keeping our bodies healthy. We had a scrimmage was last weekend where the big fella (Brandon) Medley-Bacon sat out. And so just getting our full group back today will be the first day where the whole team’s back together.”

The Cowboys played two closed scrimmages against teams from upper conferences and faired well. Not being able to specifics due to NCAA rules on closed scrimmages, Aiken liked what he saw.

“I was really encouraged. Just that we were very competitive in both games and we did some really good things. In both games, we won the rebound battle, which was a big deal. And one of them we’re able to force twice as many turnovers as we gave up. So we’re seeing a lot of growth. We were able to play a lot of guys, changed our lineups a little bit and see how the different guys played together. We played smaller in the second scrimmage without Brendan (Medley-Bacon).

“We’ve got a great group. They really believe in each other. They believe in what we’re doing. It was encouraging to see what we’d been working on in a live setting. Now it’s time to take it to the next level, playing some really high level teams.”

Medley-Bacon, who stands 7-foot-1, is expected to be penciled into the starting lineup next week but Aiken says there are 9-10 players he expects to see quality minutes.

Other players that are making a push for the starting five includes guard TJ Moss, forward Kellon Taylor and forward Myles Lewis. True freshman guard Johnathan Massie has been impressive in the preseason as well as returners Zach Scott, Harwin Francois and Collin Warren.

“We have to be able to take every day as an opportunity to learn,” said Aiken. “Every game is an opportunity to grow and I think that’s what our guys have done. They’ve really embraced learning.”