The East Central University men's basketball team will officially open the 2015-16 season this weekend at the Great American Conference/Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Challenge hosted by Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Mo.  The Tigers will first battle Concordia-St. Paul, Friday, Nov. 13 at 4 p.m. and then Minnesota Duluth, Saturday, Nov. 14 at noon.

Game Notes

The Broadcast
ECU's radio home for Tigers basketball in 2015-16 is Ada's KXFC, 105.5, FM 'The X-Factor'. Kenny Morrison returns to broadcast the games for his 19th season. Morrison, a 1987 ECU graduate, spent two seasons doing color prior to taking over the play-by-play duties during the 1997-98 season.  

The Coverage
Fans who can't be at the game can find links to live stats, live video (if available) and the KXFC radio broadcast on ECUTigers.com.  Go to the men's basketball schedule page. Fans can listen to the radio broadcast online or through the FREE KXFC App available in ITunes, Google Stores where apps are sold and www.kxfcradio.com.

Scouting Concordia-St. Paul
The Golden Bears finished the 2014-15 season with a 19-11 overall record and a 14-8 mark in the NSIC.  CSP returns seven letterwinners and two starters to this year's roster, including top scorer Cole Olstad.

Olstad averaged 13.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game for the Golden Bears and shot .421 from the field and .386 from beyond the arc.  Shea Mandi is the other returning starter, averaging 7.0 points and 3.8 boards per game and shooting .574 from the field.

CSP opened the season with an exhibition game against St. Thomas and earned a slight 77-71 win at home.  Olstad tallied 19 points and 10 boards, while Mandi added 16 points.

Scouting Minnesota-Duluth
The Bulldogs were 16-14 overall and 12-10 in the NSIC in 2014-15, having steadily improving under fourth-year head coach Matt Bowen.  UMD returns 11 players and three starters from a year ago, but lost their top scorer.

Pierrre Newton is the top returner with 13.4 points and 3.0 boards per game.  Brendon Pineda added 11.0 points and 5.7 rebounds.

This weekend's games will be the first test for the Bulldogs, who did not play any exhibition games to start the season.

The Series
This weekend's games will be the first in the all-time series with both CSP and UMD.

Gaining Some Recognition
The Tigers opened the year by being ranked No. 25 in the DII Bulletin Preseason Top-25 Poll.  Senior Stirling Thomas was also honored by DII Bulletin, being named to the Preseason All-America list as an honorable mention.  The Tigers are also receiving votes in the NABC Division II Coaches Top 25 Poll.

Picked Near the Top
ECU was picked to finish second, out of 12 teams, in the 2015-16 GAC Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's head coaches.

The Tigers were a very close second to Harding, who was picked first.  The Bisons finished with 109 points and four first-place votes, while ECU had 107 points and three first-place votes.

Ouachita Baptist was next with 100 points and four first-place votes, while Arkansas Tech as picked fourth with 96 points and the final first-place vote.

Southwestern was fifth (74), Southern Nazarene sixth (69), Southern Arkansas seventh (67), Southeastern eighth (45), Arkansas-Monticello ninth (43), Henderson State 10th (36), Northwestern 11th (29) and Oklahoma Baptist 12th (17).

Starting Strong
ECU started the year by playing two back-to-back exhibition games at Oklahoma State and UTEP.  While, the Tigers fell in both meetings, they kept the score close for most of the games and only fell by 12 at UTEP.

Stirling Thomas led ECU in the two exhibitions with 12.5 points per game, while adding 3.5 boards.  Transfer Brett Cannon added 9.0 points per game, while freshman Ben Brown-White led the team with 8.5 rebounds per game.

Up Next
There will be no rest for the Tigers, as their next games will not only be the start of GAC action, but the first games of the year at the Kerr Activities Center.  ECU will host Southern Arkansas, Thursday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Arkansas-Monticello, Saturday, Nov. 21 at 3 p.m.