GAME OVERVIEW• Millersville opens its 2015-16 season at home for the first time in four seasons. Millersville is coming off of three-straight PSAC Quarterfinal appearances, but returns only three players and one starter from last season's team. The Marauders were picked to finish sixth in the PSAC East Preseason Poll. Head Coach
Fred Thompson enters his 18th season at the helm of the Millersville men's basketball program. Thompson is the longest-tenured coach in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division and is second to only California's Bill Brown (19th season) as the longest-tenured coach in the entire conference.
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• Coach Thompson is 8-9 in season openers and has lost three in a row after winning a string of five consecutive. Millersville is 8-3 in season openers at home under Thompson with his squads having always enjoyed the friendly confines of Pucillo Gymnasium. Last season, the Marauders were 12-4 at home and posted a 4-9 mark on the road, they have not posted a winning record in road games since 2007-08. Millersville is 23-62 on the road since the start of the 2008-09 season. It went 62-34 at home during that same stretch.
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• Millersville certainly hopes for more lineup stability this season after nine different players started at least one game for the Black & Gold. Leading scorer
Kelvin Parker was available for only the first 17 games of the season. Millersville lost six players that started nine or more games last year. The top returnees for Millersville are
Shawn Williams,
Tommy Patterson,
Demerik Weglinski and
Jerrin Ball. All four players appeared in at least 19 games with Williams starting all 30 for the Marauders a season ago. Williams was just the third Marauder in the last seven years to record 100 assists in a season. The Roberts Vaux product ranked fifth in the PSAC in steals and 11th in assists. He also knocked down a team-best 36.6 percent of his three point attempts and was a strong free throw shooter, hitting 78.7 percent from the charity stripe.
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• The coaching staff is expecting immediate production from IUP transfer
Cornell Yarde II. The redshirt junior played in 29 games for the Crimson Hawks and was named PSAC West Freshman of the Week on two occasions. Yarde II had a career-high 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists during his redshirt freshman season. Transfers
Markeith Mont and
Scott Slade Jr. put up outstanding numbers at their previous schools. Mont played two seasons at the Community College of Philadelphia where he averaged 19.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Mont was voted MVP of CCP's basketball team after the 2014-15 campaign. Slade Jr. averaged 7.1 points and 4.2 boards per game. Newcomers
Ricky Mosley,
Clifford Jorden III,
Bryan Rivera and
Jon Lott should also be in the mix.
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SCOUTING THE OPPONENT• Coach Ricky Jackson enters his second season with Clafin and brings a coaching philosophy that features discipline on and off the basketball court as well as unselfish and aggressive defense that has resulted in balanced scoring. The Panthers finished the 2014-15 season with an overall record of 16-14 and finished third in the Southern Intercollegiate Eastern Division with a 12-7 mark. Claflin returns the potent backcourt combination of Patrell Rogers and Adolph Caldwell.  Rogers was the Panthers leading scorer a season ago averaging 11.8 points per game, while he also shot 78% from the free throw line. Caldwell was named to the 2015-16 SIAC Preseason Team after he averaged 10.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and shot 80% from the charity stripe during the 2014-15 campaign. Â
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