It's that time again!
10/18/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Lehigh began its season today with its first official practice at Stabler Arena. The Mountain Hawks put in a three-hour day starting at noon and will be right back at it tomorrow for another three-hour session. Reigning Patriot League Coach of the Year Billy Taylor, fresh off a 16-12 season in his inaugural campaign, returns a solid nucleus of players from last year’s team, and also welcomes in four talented freshmen that should contribute in various aspects along the way in 2003-04.
Taylor and his staff are thrilled to get back on the court and go to work following such a successful year in 2002-03. “We are very excited to start the season after setting such a solid foundation last year. The team worked extremely hard in the summer and in the fall to prepare themselves, and now we get a chance to see how all of their hard work and dedication paid off.”
Senior guards Austen Rowland and Ra Tiah will serve as captains for the season and will be counted on heavily by Taylor and his staff. “Austen and Ra have a lot of experience between them, they both exhibit solid leadership abilities and they will have a big impact on the younger guys, in terms of setting the tone,” Taylor explains. Rowland and Tiah will be joined in the back court by 2003 Patriot League All-Rookie selection Mitch Gilfillan, who led the league in three point shooting last season by hitting an impressive 52% of his shots.
Juniors Nick Monserez and Earl Nurse are the top returning forwards for Lehigh, with each playing in all 28 games a season ago. Junior Dayne Mickelson will also be looked upon to provide a scoring punch in the low post after gaining valuable minutes last year as well.
What will the first few days of practice entail for the Mountain Hawks? Coach Taylor explains, “I will get a chance to learn a lot about the team and see what we have. It’s a chance to see who has improved their game, what skills they were able to improve or develop,” Taylor continues, “We will be doing a lot of conditioning to get everyone in top shape, there will be individual drills and we’ll work on our transition game. And of course we want to focus on improving on the defensive end each day. So we’ll spend significant time on implementing our defense and fine tuning it.”
Lehigh will host Team Nike in an exhibition game at Stabler Arena on November 8 starting at 7:30. The Mountain Hawks will open their regular season on November 21, as they welcome Long Island to Stabler Arena. Game time is set for 7:30.
