HBU Huskies (0-0) at TCU Horned Frogs (0-0)
Wednesday, Nov. 25 – 7 p.m.
Schollmaier Arena – Fort Worth, Texas
Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Radio (Husky Sports Network/Lonnie King)
Live Stats
Game Notes
FORT WORTH, Texas – The highly anticipated start to the 2020-21 college basketball season arrives on Wednesday for the HBU men's basketball team when the Huskies travel to Fort Worth to take on the TCU Horned Frogs inside Schollmaier Arena for a 7:00 p.m. tip. Wednesday's game will aired on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ in addition to the Husky Sports Network audio broadcast with Lonnie King available at HBUHuskies.com.
The Huskies begin their 30
th season under James Sears Bryant Head Men's Basketball Coach
Ron Cottrell, returning seven letterwinners from a year ago with three of those being seniors.
Philip McKenzie, a four-year member of the program, has been a steady presence on the boards with 329 rebounds in his first three seasons. Of those 329, 170 have come on the offensive end.
Ty Dalton, meanwhile, is in his third year with the program and has averaged 6.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
Center
Ryan Gomes is the team's third senior who started 16 of his 29 games last year in his first season with the Huskies after transferring from Mount Saint Mary's. The big man averaged 4.3 points and 2.8 rebounds per game as a junior. Other returners include sophomore
Myles Pierre who started 14 games at point guard as a freshman, averaging 8.1 points, three rebounds and 2.2 assists per outing. Sophomore forward
Jason Thompson saw action in just four games but put up 10.8 ppg and 5.5 rpg while
Zach Iyeyemi saw action in 23 games in his first year. HBU will also have junior
Hunter Janacek at their disposal after the guard missed all of last season due to injury. Janacek started his career at Lafayette and then played one season at Angelina College, averaging close to nine points and four boards per game.
The HBU roster also boasts eight newcomers, including juniors
Pedro Castro and
Darius Lee. Castro, a 6-7 junior came from Blinn College where he added 10.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg and 3.6 apg after spending his freshman campaign at UT Arlington. Lee comes to the Huskies after earning NJCAA All-America honors as a sophomore at SUNY Sullivan. The 6-6 junior put up 18.1 ppg, 9.1 rpg and 3.8 apg for the General en route to a 28-2 record last season. Those two are joined by a trio of freshman guards in
Jade Tse,
Za-Ontay Boothman and
Brycen Long. Tse is now in his third year out of high school with four years of eligibility remaining after a prep school year at Deerfield Academy and a redshirt season at Salt Lake Community College. Boothman and Long both hail from Arizona where they both excelled as high school seniors, averaging 26 and 17 ppg, respectively.
TCU is looking to replace the program's first NBA draft pick in more than two decades in Desmond Bane who led the Horned Frogs to a 16-16 mark last season behind 16.6 ppg, 6.4 rpg and a team-best 124 assists. RJ Nembhard, a junior guard, is the team's top returning scorer after adding more than 12 per game last season with fellow junior Kevin Samuel patrolling the paint a year after totaling 85 blocked shots and 8.4 rpg as a sophomore. The Horned Frogs roster also features Kevin Easley Jr., a transfer from Chattanooga who earned Southern Conference Freshman of the Year honors in 2018-19 and Chuck O'Bannon Jr., a senior transfer from USC who saw very limited action the last two seasons due to injuries.
HBU is 1-6 all-time against the Horned Frogs, most recently facing each other on November 19, 2015 in Fort Worth with TCU coming away with a 90-63 win. The program's win over the Horned Frogs came during the 1972-73 season with the Huskies taking a 94-93 overtime victory on the road.
The Huskies will next travel to Arizona for their longest trip of the season to face 18
th-ranked Arizona State in Tempe on Sunday, Nov. 29, at 3:00 p.m. CST.
