Basketball season starts Monday night, so we can put the minor sports on the back burner and try to forget Overtons horrific mistake in transitioning to CUSA for a few months.
AAR believes in a tough preseason, so he starts off against the D3 Panthers of LaGrange College -- the Panthers were 16-11 last year and 10-2 in conference. They beat Ogelthorpe College last year by 14 whereas KSU beat D3 Ogelthorpe by 11 the last time they played in a game that was closer than the score suggests. They also swept Piedmont last year -- and long time KSU fans will remember when KSU trailed D3 Piedmont with 5 minutes left in the game and barely escaped with a 7 point victory.
Piedmont lost to Mercer in their opener in a heartbreaking 107-56 defeat. Massey says KSU wins 95-61. But...does Massey know that the last time these 2 teams played LaGrange traveled to KSU and won 82-79? And does he know that the game before that KSU traveled to LaGrange and got whipped 73-57?
KSU leads the series 13-6, but these 2 teams have played some epic games in the past. Who can forget the 96-92 KSU OT victory? Or the game where no one could be stopped, and KSU won a 134-101 thriller. (Note: the KSU record for points scored in a game is 145 against DeVry.)
AAR has guided the program from horrific to mediocre and was rewarded by AD Overton with a 4 year extension. AAR starts to earn that paycheck with a game one victory.
Basketball is back. Finally. Enjoy ASun hoops while ya can.