November 12 Notebook

IT’S OFFICIAL: COLLEGE BASKETBALL REGULAR SEASON TIPS OFF FRIDAY!!!

UPCOMING GAMES

Friday, Nov. 14

North Carolina Central at North Carolina

St. Francis (Pa.) at Cincinnati

Central Arkansas at Creighton

Louisiana Tech at Southern

Charleston Southern at Mississippi

Eastern Illinois at Missouri State

Northern Arizona at Xavier

Ohio Valley at Middle Tennessee State

Sunday, Nov. 16

Northern Arizona at Toledo

Chicago State at Creighton

Monday, Nov. 17

LSU-Alexandria at Southern

Eureka at Eastern Illinois

Mississippi at Troy

Tuesday, Nov. 18

College of Faith at North Carolina Central

Murray State at Middle Tennessee State

Wednesday, Nov. 19

Oklahoma at Creighton

Morehead State at Cincinnati

EXHIBITION SCORES

Oct. 29 Games

Northern Arizona 87, California Baptist 82

Nov. 3 Games

Cincinnati 86, Bellarmine 79

Friday, Nov. 7 Games

Creighton 91, Sioux Falls 72

Mississippi 97, Delta State 58

Saturday, Nov. 8 Games

Cincinnati 71, Fairmont State 54

Monday, Nov. 10 Games

Eastern Illinois 85, St. Francis (Ill.) 54

Martin Methodist 76, Middle Tennessee State 67

CREIGHTON RELOADING, NOT REBUILDING: Graduation claimed four starters but Creighton feels it is reloading, not rebuilding as it enters the 2014-15 campaign.

Point guard Austin Chatman is the only starter back, which has led many to label this season’s team as inexperienced. That’s hardly the case.

Chatman has started the past 71 games and has played in 106 in his career.

Avery Dingman also has played in 106 games over the past three seasons, while Will Artino will be playing in his 103rd game against Central Arkansas.

Another senior, Devin Brooks, played in 34 of 35 games last season, his first in the program after two seasons of junior-college competition. Then there’s Ricky Kreklow, the graduate transfer from California. He started his collegiate career at Missouri, playing in 32 games as a true freshman. Injuries limited him to 33 games at Cal, but he’s hardly some unproven rookie.

OLE MISS HAS DEEP ROTATION: As Ole Miss prepares to start the 2014-15 basketball season, coach Andy Kennedy said he believes he could have one of his deeper rotations during his tenure at the school.

“We’d be hard-pressed to find a cutoff between seven, eight, nine and 10 (players),” Kennedy said.

ROZIER READY TO TAKE RAIDERS BACK TO NCAA: Senior forward Jacquez Rozier is battle tested and ready to lead Middle Tennessee State back to the NCAA Tournament. Two years ago, Rozier carved out a starting role on the Blue Raiders first NCAA Tournament team in more than 20 years.

The then-sophomore won a starting spot after a dominating preseason camp.

But he broke his hand before getting healthy, winning back his starting job and promptly breaking his hand again.

The recurrence of the injury ended his season as the Blue Raiders found their groove en route to a program-record for wins in a single season at 28.

If was a tough break for the Georgia native, who played in all 33 games last year as a junior but made just two starts.

That won’t be the case this season though as the 6-foot-7 forward will be leaned on heavily with a roster featuring nine (of 15) new players

DEPTH IN BACKCOURT: According to the Arizona Daily Sun, Northern Arizona coach Jack Murphy is counting on transfer Jaleni Neely to solidify an already talented Lumberjacks backcourt.

Junior Jaleni Neely transferred in from Eastern Utah and started at point guard in NAU’s exhibition win over Cal Baptist a week ago. Neely enters the mix, joining senior Aaseem Dixon, senior Quinton Upshur and sophomore Kris Yanku, and gives Northern Arizona one of the deeper backcourts in the conference.

Only Travis Meeker and his 4.5 minutes in 20 games left the program, meaning there wasn’t much need to fill minutes in the backcourt. However, Murphy said Neely still was a need for the team.

“I think he was a need because he is a true, pure point guard,” Murphy said. “Kris Yanku is a prototypical combo guard on and off the ball. Aaseem Dixon was forced into action at the point last year and he is more of a natural (shooting guard).”

MORE HEADLINES

Cincinnati

Nov. 8: Bearcats beat Fairmont State