Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

Men's Basketball Team Set To Continue Steady Improvement In 2006-07 Campaign

The Piedmont College men's basketball team enters the 2006-07 campaign looking to continue its steady transformation into a permanently winning program. Last season's 13-12 record was just the second winning season in the past nine years and marked only the third time in the past 22 years that a Piedmont men's team has improved its win total in back-to-back seasons.

The schedule, however, will feature a very tough road of competition. The Lions will face off against NCAA-III South Region opponents in 18 of the team's scheduled 25 games. In those 18 regional contests, PC will play four games against teams that participated in last season's NCAA National Tournament, six games against 20-win teams from last year, and 10 games against teams that finished 2005-06 with winning records.

In addition to the tough regular-season conference schedule, the schedule features three tournaments beginning with the 4th Annual USA-South/GSAC Tip-Off Classic at Ferrum College. In the fall semester the Lions will also participate in the Roger Taylor Invitational hosted by NC Wesleyan College where they will open up with a 16-win Wesley (DE) College team with NCAA-participant York (NY) College and the tournment host in the opposite bracket. The spring semester will bring a weekend road trip with back-to-back games at preseason #18 Christopher Newport and Methodist University as these two teams have combined to win 10 out of the last 11 NCAA Tournament berths out of the USA-South. The non-Division-III schedule will also feature a road game at Southern Poly State University who is currently ranked #12 nationally in the NAIA preseason rankings.

Head Coach Lee Glenn's (fourth season) roster will be anchored by six upperclassmen who tallied 61% of the team's total points and 55% of the minutes from last season. Junior Jake Baldwin (pictured right) and Mike Adams return as the Lions' top scorers last season with averages of 16.2 and 15.1 points per game respectively. Baldwin is coming off of a year in which he was voted the GSAC 1st team All-Conference squad after averaging 26 points in the last five games of the year. Adams is an explosive guard that tallied 20 or more points in 10 different games last season.

With 11 underclassmen, including nine freshmen, Piedmont will feature a high-powered attack both offensively and defensively. Last season the Lions finished 14th nationally in the final NCAA Division-III national statistics in scoring offense with a season average of 86.4 points per game. For two consecutive years, Piedmont has boasted the South Region's top scoring offense.

Point guard Jake Green returns after leading the team in assists per game (5.0) and finishing second on the squad in steals (43) in his sophomore campaign. The Lions will look to force the game tempo on defense and improve upon their 14th ranked steals per game average of 11.4 from last season.

Piedmont opens the 2006-07 season on Friday, November 17th against Greensboro College in the first round of the USA-South/GSAC Tip Off Classic at Ferrum College in Ferrum, VA.