Lumberjack Basketball Opens Season At South Florida
11/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2004
SEASON OPENER: Danny Kaspar's Lumberjacks open the 2004-05 season on the road Saturday against the Bulls of South Florida. It marks the third time in the last four seasons in which SFA has opened the year on the road. The `Jacks are 0-2 when opening the season on the road under Danny Kaspar with losses to Arizona State (61-92) in 2001 and Texas (55-81) in 2002. The `Jacks are 2-0 when opening the season at home under Kaspar including last season's 98-83 win over Houston Baptist. The `Jacks jumped out to a 4-0 start last season following up the win over Houston Baptist with road wins over Baylor and Alcorn State before returning home to move to 4-0 with a home win over Alcorn State. SFA suffered its first loss last season in Fort Worth, losing to TCU, 84-62. SFA is 45-35 all-time in season opening games and is 5-5 over the past 10 years.
2004-05 OUTLOOK: The Lumberjacks have been picked to finish fourth in the Southland Conference in a preseason poll of conference head coaches and fifth in a poll of conference SIDs. The `Jacks return only two starters from last season's 21-9 club, but also return five other letterwinners from a year ago. Included among those returning letterwinners are four players who appeared in at least 29 games and F Taylor Moore, who started 12 games early last season before sitting out the second half of the season. G Marcus Clark returns for his junior year as a preseason All-Southland Conference pick and will anchor the SFA back court. Clark led the SLC in assist to turnover ratio (2.21:1) and was third on the team with 9.4 points per game. F Hank Rivers started the final 18 games a year ago and closed the year on the rise. The 6-8 senior averaged 10.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game over the final dozen games and closed the year with back-to-back double-doubles in the Southland Conference tournament.
VS. SOUTH FLORIDA: This is the first ever meeting between the two teams.
THE BULLS: The Bulls return three starters and eight letterwinners off last year's 7-20 team. South Florida went 1-15 in Conference USA a year ago. Among the three returning starters are the top two scorers from a year ago in F Terrance Leather, a 6-9 forward who averaged 15.5 points and 8.4 rebounds per game and G Bradley Mosely. Moseley averaged 14.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game last season for the Bulls. Following Saturday's game, USF hosts Prairie View A&M and Stetson before beginning a stretch of five straight away from the Sun Dome.
THE COACHES: The Lumberjacks are coached by Danny Kaspar (283-101) entering his fifth year with the Lumberjacks. Kaspar is 64-49 at SFA. The fifth year head coach can move past Ned Fowler into fifth place on the all-time wins list with 15 wins this year. South Florida is coached by Robert McCullum, entering his second season at USF. McCullum was 7-20 a year ago and has a 51-65 career record in four seasons as a head coach.
UP NEXT: SFA returns home to host Concordia-Austin Nov. 23, then travels to the Cyclone Challenge hosted by Iowa State Thanksgiving weekend. SFA opens the tournament against Bucknell and will play either Northern Colorado or Iowa State in the second round. ™
