Spartan Men's Hoops Opens Practice
10/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 17, 2008
Spartanburg, S.C. - The USC Upstate men's basketball team hit the floor for the first practice of the 2008-09 season at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening in the Hodge Center, taking the first step in preparation for the upcoming season.
Friday's opening practice followed preseason conditioning and individual workouts as Upstate has begun preparing for the Nov. 14 season opener at Georgia. The game at Georgia is the first of a 30-game schedule that will once again see the Spartans play a tough non-conference schedule. This year, however, Upstate will have an even more difficult time in the Atlantic Sun as the league has been reduced to an 11-team conference with the departure of Gardner-Webb for the Big South. As a result, the A-Sun went to a double round robin schedule with 20 league games.
Upstate will play three straight road games to open the season. In addition to the season opener at Georgia, the Spartans will travel to Notre Dame and South Carolina prior to their home opener against Duquesne on Nov. 25. Upstate will play in 11 states and three time zones this season, traveling more than 17,000 miles roundtrip from Spartanburg to play its 30 games. The Spartans will play other non-conference games against the likes of Boston College, Gonzaga, Saint Louis, Fresno State, Southern and either Liberty or Northern Colorado, the latter four opponents as part of the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic.
Upstate's schedule contains four teams - Belmont, Georgia, Gonzaga and Notre Dame - that earned spots in the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans will play 21 different opponents in 2008-09. The opponents combined for 317 wins a year ago, or an average of 15 per team, making this year's schedule even more difficult than last year's slate of games. When Upstate finished the non-conference portion of its schedule last year on Jan. 2 at Iowa State, the schedule was ranked as the 18th toughest in the nation.
Upstate returns seven players from last year's 7-23, 5-11 team that finished in a tie for 10th in the A-Sun. The Spartans won the program's first-ever game over a DI opponent at SMU in December and claimed key A-Sun wins over Campbell, Gardner-Webb, Kennesaw State, Mercer and North Florida.
Bobby Davis leads the returning players. The senior forward averaged 9.8 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds per game, increasing those numbers to better than 10 points and eight rebounds per outing against A-Sun competition. In addition to Davis, Gabor Boros, Nick Schneiders, Josh Chavis and Mezie Uzochukwu are returning players who saw significant action last year and are expected to lead the team and serve as mentors for the new players in the program.
