SFA Officially Begins 2018-19 Season with First Day of Practice
10/1/2018 7:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball
2018-19 'Jacks take to the floor of William R. Johnson Coliseum for the first official practice
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Clad in shorts and practice jerseys sporting words that describe just how devastating its style of defense has been this decade, the SFA men's basketball team took part in its first official practice of the 2018-19 season Monday inside William R. Johnson Coliseum.
The squad started the day at 6:00 a.m. with an offense-oriented, one-hour session before shifting into high gear for the two-hour afternoon session that started at 4:15 p.m. The 2018 NCAA Tournament participant returns a trio of starters from its 2017-18 club that led the nation in steals, steals per game and turnovers forced per game.
Although the 'Jacks of 2018-19 return a shade over 60-percent of their scoring from a season ago and all four All-Southland Conference performers, the feel of this squad is anything but the same.
"This year's team is so different than last year's team even though we return a lot," opined third-year head coach Kyle Keller. "The roles have changed so much even though the personnel hasn't."
That change in roles opened up a whole new batch of hypotheticals for Keller, too.
"Just going down the line, I'm anxious to see Aaron Augustin grow into a true leader and how he embraces that because all he has done is ever win. And I'm eager to see Kevon Harris become a really dominant leader. Then you move over to what can Shannon Bogues do in his final year of basketball and TJ Holyfield - even though he has won so much and has a chance to become the school's leading scorer, rebounder and shot blocker - he's almost under the radar and the question with him is how is he going to embrace being responsible for leading this team?"
Augustin, Bogues, Harris and Holyfield represent the core of a team that will go in search of its fifth NCAA Tournament bid in the last six seasons once it opens up play. They're joined by a batch of newcomers including the likes of transfers Davonte Fitzgerald and Karl Nicholas, freshman sensations Jock Hughes, Mitchell Seraille and Oddyst Walker and key returners Nathan Bain, John Comeaux, Jovan Grujic and Samuli Nieminen. Walk-ons Rance Cole and Aaron Walton round out SFA's roster.
"We recruit guys that, I think, are pretty hungry and they understand the pride that it is and who they're playing for and what this program means to so many people," Keller continued. "This brand continues to grow nationally because of what so many people before us have done. People understand how good basketball is in Nacogdoches."
On Tuesday, November 6 at 6:30 p.m., the 'Jacks begin their 2018-19 regular season by hosting NCAA Division III adversary Texas Wesleyan inside William R. Johnson Coliseum. Season tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by heading to SFATickets.com.
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