ENMU men's basketball team has vision for success

PORTALES — This year's Greyhound men's basketball team is clearly bigger, faster and more athletic than last year. And this year's team has a vision of winning the Lone Star Conference, even if nobody else sees it.

The Greyhounds, who start their second season under former Midwestern State assistant Tres Segler, get their first regulation test Saturday when they visit Fort Lewis to open a 28-game schedule that runs through Feb. 24.

The team will first play for the Greyhound Arena fans and open the LSC season on Nov. 30 against Texas Permian Basin.

Eastern, which finished ninth last season with a 13-15 overal record and 7-11 LSC record, is agin predicted to finish ninth according to the LSC preseason poll. But they're hopeful they can not only make the eight-team tournament, but shock the conference by being right in the thick of it.

It just depends on which Greyhound team shows up — the one that started 1-7 in conference play last season, or the team that rallied to close the season in a three-way tiebreaker for the final two seeds.

Segler is hoping this season is a continuation of that late-season surge.

"The change happened," Segler said, "when we started making plays for each other and not just ourselves."

Segler believes the team's progress is like being on a ladder, and they're still on the rung they reached last year with a goal to keep climbing.

It was the kind of progress that brought junior college transfers like Shawn Shelton and Lamarquis Thompson on board in the first place. Those two should play key minutes this year, Segler said, after they combined to start just 20 games last year.

"They're going to be key guys for us at the wing positions," Segler said. "They're going to be guarding the other team's best guys, and they're going to be guarded by the other team's best guys."

Segler believes Andre Hughes, the only player to start all 28 games for last year's Greyhounds, has the potential to be the LSC's top forward. The Greyhounds have also added Clarion College transfer Jamani Pierce and four freshmen coming from New Mexico (Eldorado's Tanner Carter and Roswell's Garrett Smothermon) and Texas (Devin Pullum of Little Elm and TJ Gittens of Houston).

Shelton said he was about to commit elsewhere, but decided to don Greyhound green after talking with the first-time head coach.

It must have been quite a sales job to pull Shelton away from Connecticut to play at not only a small school in New Mexico but one without much of a basketball track record of late.

"He sold me on his vision," Shelton said. "He wanted to bring basketball back into this community, and he wanted me to be a part of that vision."

The vision of Shelton is a little different as well. He is listed as 6-foot-7, 200 pounds on both last year's and this year's roster, but there's an undeniable visual last year's Shelton, who quickly picked up "Bones" as a nickname, and this year's Shelton, who bulked up through four meals a day and weight room work.

Thompson said he was convinced of Segler's vision as well, and enters the season as the top returning scorer at 10.7 points per game.

"We know what it takes (in the LSC) after playing last year," Thompson said. "We're trying to work with the newer guys, show them the way."

Asked what he'd tell himself with hindsight on his first season in the conference, Thompson was quick to answer, "They don't call no fouls here," before he and Shelton laughed.

"It's a tough conference," Shelton responded. "You have to impose your will. You can't be laid back; you've got to go after it."

Segler said the ENMU exhibition games in Arizona, with a tight loss to Arizona Christian and a predictable 28-point loss to No. 3 Arizona, was positive in many ways. He noted that against Arizona, the Greyhounds were ahead in rebounds at the half and had more offensive rebounds overall.

"If we can rebound like that in the Lone Star, we'll be all right," Segler said. "Those years (at Midwestern State) when we were winning rings, we rebounded well."

Roster

# Player Pos. Ht./Wt. Year

0 Lamarquis Thompson G 6-3/190 Sr.

1 Nick Brown G 6-1/190 Jr.

3 Devin Pullum G 6-2/195 Jr.

4 Shawn Shelton G 6-7/200 Sr.

5 Zach Parker G 6-2/195 Jr.

10 Manqistu Jongkor G 6-3/190 Jr.

13 Tanner Carter G 6-2/185 Fr.

15 Jamani Pierce F 6-7/225 Sr.

20 Garrett Smotheron G 6-2/195 Fr.

21 Arcai Lallemand F 6-6/200 Jr.

22 Christian Lopez G 6-0/185 So.

23 TJ Gittens G 6-1/190 Fr.

25 Andre Hughes F 6-8/220 Sr.

31 Isaac Maldonado 6-7/200 So.

Schedule

November

11: at Fort Lewis, 12:30 p.m.; 12: at New Mexico Highlands, 5 p.m.; 17: vs. Dixie State at Monmouth, Ore., 6 p.m.; 18: vs. Azusa Pacific at Monmouth, Oreg., 6 p.m.; 24: vs. St. Edward's at Austin, Texas, 6 p.m.; 25: vs. Dallas Baptist in Austin, Texas, 1 p.m.; 30: UT Permian Basin, 7:30 p.m.*

December

2: West Texas A&M, 4 p.m.*; 7: at Texas A&M-Commerce, noon*; 9: at Tarleton State, 3 p.m.*; 12: at New Mexico Sate, 7 p.m.; 15: at Oklahoma Christian, 6 p.m.; 19: Regis, 3 p.m; 30: at Lubbock Christian, 1 p.m..

January

2: Western New Mexico, 7:30 p.m.*; 11: at Cameron, 6:30 p.m.*; 13: at Midwestern State, 3 p.m.*; 18: Texas A&M-Kingsville, 7:30 p.m.*; 20: Angelo State, 4 p.m.*; 25: at West Texas A&M, 6:30 p.m.*; 27: at Texas Permian Basin, 3 p.m.*

February

1: Tarleton State, 7:30 p.m.*; 3: Texas A&M-Commerce, 4 p.m.*; 6: at Western New Mexico, 7:30 p.m.*; 15: Midwestern State, 7:30 p.m.*; 17: Cameron, 4 p.m.*; 22: at Angelo State, 6:30 p.m.*; 24: at Texas A&M-Kingsville, 3 p.m.*

All Times Mountain * - indications Lone Star Conference game