Out with the old and in with the new.
After posting a respectable 19-11 record last year, the Pride have seen the departure of leading scorer Mark Anderson, but are confident they will improve with the arrival of a talented recruiting class and the return of injured forward British Alexander.
“This year’s team will be better than last years,” said Head Coach Jeff Price. “With the size and scoring we have coming in, we’ll be back top ten in the nation scoring at around 90 points per game.”
Much of the Pride’s size and scoring should come from 6-foot-8 recruit Phillip Hayes, 6-foot-10 recruit Kevin Williamson and 6-foot-7 British Alexander, a sophomore forward who red shirted last year after injuring his back early in the season.
“I went through therapy over the break and I’m getting better and better. I feel 100 percent,” Alexander said.
While they will be getting Alexander back, the Pride definitely won’t have Mark Anderson’s 20 plus points per game to count on anymore. Still, Price is confident his team will adjust.
“Some people think that since we lost Mark we lost our scoring, but our other guys scored too,” said Price. “Mark was third in the nation in scoring, but the thing is we never ran plays for him. He only took 19 shots a game, so all we have to replace is 19 shots and that’s easy.”
Price said he wants the Pride to score 65-70 percent of their points in transition and plans on doing that by playing an up-tempo style predicated on strong defense.
“The strengths of this year’s team will be our defense. We will be better at on-ball defense, defensive rebounding and that will lead to our transition game,” Price said.
Also returning from last year’s team will be its third leading scorer in guard Kevin Vest who will be paired with Thurgood Marshall’s De’Angelo Gates to give the Pride depth at guard. But, Price still wants to see one more element added this season.
“Our goal this year is to get the student population of Sinclair to show up and be the loudest junior college fans around,” Price said. “I would love to see this place jam packed for 15 home games. That not only helps our team on the floor, but also with recruiting.”