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HomeSportsAPSU Men's Basketball began Fall Practice Friday afternoon

APSU Men’s Basketball began Fall Practice Friday afternoon

APSU Sports Information

APSU Men's BasketballClarksville, TN – Sneakers squeaked across the Dunn Center floor Friday afternoon as Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team got its first fall practice session underway under the watchful eye of first-year head coach Matt Figger.

When your squad returns 14 percent of its scoring, 28 percent of its assists and 17 percent of its rebounding, you get to work and you hit the ground running.

Matt Figger held his first practice session Friday as the new Austin Peay Men's Basketball head coach. (APSU Sports Information)
Matt Figger held his first practice session Friday as the new Austin Peay Men’s Basketball head coach. (APSU Sports Information)

“I’m really excited,” Figger said. “Our guys are doing all they can to please us, not only on the court but in the classroom and in the weight room. Right now, our strength is in numbers—what we lack in playing time together, we’ve got in older guys with experience and young guys with talent.”

Integrating nine new pieces into the squad will involve making good use of each of the 28 practices prior to the November 4th exhibition against Sewanee. Figger’s veteran core—senior Tre’ Ivory and juniors Chris Porter-Bunton, Steve Harris and Zach Glotta—welcome six freshmen, in addition to transfers Deyshawn Martin, Ed Stephens and Averyl Ugba, to a new-look Austin Peay squad eager to make an early statement against a competitive non-conference slate.

Glotta and Porter-Bunton got a jumpstart on flexing their leadership muscles during the summer at the Athletes in Action Captains Academy. Click here for more info on the duo’s transition and experience at the Xenia, Ohio-based camp.

The freshman class—the largest contingent of first-time collegiate players to debut as Governors in the same season since the seven-player freshman class in 2008-09—brings tons of talent into the fold. Two French nationals—Acoydan McCarthy and Joan Bernacer—could develop into a long, versatile backcourt and are joined from the international ranks by Canadian big man Ivan Cucak, who spent last season at Don Bosco (Ind.) Prep. Dayton Gumm, Richard Henderson and Terry Taylor bring an influx of talent and a championship pedigree into the fold, with Taylor emerging as one of Kentucky’s best prep players last season.

That non-conference schedule gets rolling November 10th down I-24 at Vanderbilt. The Govs face the Commodores and Virginia—two NCAA Tournament squads last season—to begin the 2017-18 regular season in the NIT Tip-Off Challenge before opening play in the Dunn Center, November 16th, against Oakland City.  

Season tickets are now available by calling 931.221.PEAY (7329) or emailing tickets@apsu.edu.

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