The arrival of the month of November marks the beginning of a special time of year known as basketball season.

After a long off-season, the Skyhawk men’s basketball team is ready to take to the court and contend for an Ohio Valley Conference championship.

Sixth-year head coach Bret Campbell and his staff spent the off-season finding the best prospects available for their system and putting together a schedule that will prepare the team for the tests that await them in conference play.

The Skyhawks’ schedule features a few big names on the college basketball scene. A year after squaring off against the mighty Duke Blue Devils, UTM will compete against power conference members Louisville, of the Big East, and the Big Ten’s Purdue and Illinois. Louisville and Illinois made up one-half of last year’s Final Four. Those three games will provide tough tests for the Skyhawks.

Coach Campbell says there was a definite method to the scheduling process. “Those games were by design,” he says. “Our two top players, Jared Newson is from Illinois and Jeremy Kelly is from Louisville, and that gives them a chance to get back home and play in front of their families.”

One feature of the schedule that is different from past seasons is the relative abundance of non-conference home games.

In the past, the Skyhawks have spent the month of December on the road. This season will be much different as the team will be at home for five straight games following the regular-season opener at Louisville on November 19.

“Last year we played nine out of our first 11 on the road. We’re hoping this will help get us back on track,” says Campbell.

The Skyhawks will open OVC play early in the season when Jacksonville State visits the Elam Center on December 10. They have been picked to finish eighth in the conference by the coaches, tied with SEMO and ahead of Jacksonville State and Morehead State.

The most challenging stretch of the schedule will be the four-game road swing to finish the month of December. The Skyhawks will travel to OVC members Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky before taking on Purdue and Illinois, all in a span of three weeks. Senior guard-forward Jared Newson has been named 1st team OVC and is one of ten returning players. The Skyhawks return their starting frontcourt of center Cleve Woodfork and forwards Will Lewis and Jason Thompson.

Woodfork and Lewis both shot over 50 percent from the floor last season. Newson was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder last year, averaging 15.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

Also returning is the team’s best outside shooting threat, junior guard Justin Flatt, who made over 34 percent of his long-range attempts last season. Coach Campbell expects big things from his veteran players this season.

“Again, I go back to Jeremy Kelly and Jared Newson. We have five seniors on our team, and we also have four juniors who have redshirted at one time or another and really could be seniors, so I think that gives us a lot of depth from senior leadership.”

The youth will be more apparent in the backcourt. Among the newcomers to the team are three freshmen guards, Joseph Bailey of Byrdstown, Tenn., Spencer Harris of Bluffton, Ind., and Vashon Ingram of Memphis, Tenn.

The key to the team’s success this year, according to Campbell, will be the point guard position.

“We lost a lot of close games last year because we weren’t good enough at the point guard spot, but if any of our three incoming guards or a combination thereof can figure it out at the point, then we have a chance to be pretty good,” Campbell says.

The team must find a reliable replacement for the departed Tyler George, who started ten of the 24 games he played, averaging 15.4 minutes per game. Marcus Ford led the team with an average of 2.8 assists per game.

The Skyhawks finished the ‘04-05 season with an overall record of 6-21, including a 3-13 finish in the OVC. That was good enough for tenth place in the OVC. The team failed to qualify for the postseason OVC tournament for the second straight season.

As far as the OVC goes, Murray State will be the team to beat once again this year. Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee Tech, Samford, and Tennessee State round out the top five. Austin Peay is predicted to finish sixth, followed by Eastern Illinois in seventh, and SEMO and UTM tied for eighth. Jacksonville State and Morehead State round out the standings in tenth and eleventh places, respectively.