New Look Jackets Open at Eastern Washington Sunday

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State Billings men’s basketball team opens the 2009-2010 season with an exhibition game at Eastern Washington University Sunday at 1:05 p.m. pacific time.  Live stats for the game will be available online.

2009-2010 MSUB Men’s Basketball Outlook

Much could be said about a team that rebounds from a 1-28 finish in 2007-08 to a 10-17 overall the following season, and that’s just what the Montana State University Billings 2008-09 men’s basketball team accomplished.  This amazing turnaround in the inaugural year of head coach George Pfeifer’s direction definitely exceeded expectations.  As Pfeifer begins his second season at the helm of the Yellowjackets, he combines a core of six experienced, veteran players and ten talented newcomers—creating a new look for the Jackets.  All on board are dedicated to continuing the momentum toward advancement in the very competitive Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

“Last year the Jackets were expected to place at the bottom of the conference,” Pfeifer said.  “Instead, with tremendous player effort and improvement, they placed in the middle of one of the elite NCAA Division II conferences in the country.  The effort those players put forth took us from a place where it wasn’t uncommon to drop games by an average of 27 points, to a point where ten of last season’s losses were by five points or less and hinged on the bounce of the ball.”
           
This tremendous improvement bodes well for the coming season and the Jackets’ ability to keep the energy going, despite the loss of some key scoring power. 
           
“We’ve lost 40 points from the roster with the loss of some of our scorers, including standouts Mike Hall and Travis Bunker,” Pfeifer said.   The group last season came into a tough situation and battled from the beginning to the end.  I’m extremely proud of the way they pioneered the start of our turnaround.”
           
Looking to continue that impetus are four returning front line Jackets who all played in virtually every game last season.  Honorable mention all-GNAC senior forward Derrick Wright (6’7, 225 lb.) is back in the best shape of his college career. 
           
“Last year Derrick averaged 17.1 points per game in the GNAC and had some monster games shooting 53.3 percent and grabbed 5.8 rebounds per game,” Pfeifer said.  “Also returning is senior Brad Hodge (6’8, 225 lb.), who led the team in field goal accuracy last season at 59.2 percent scoring 8.2 points per game while taking down 4.7 rebounds per game.  Wright and Hodge will be joined by blue collar warriors Kirk Blaine and Tyler Hentzen who scored a combined five points per game and grabbed close to six rebounds per game, together.”

Returning to the perimeter are junior Brett Taylor (5-8, 170 lb.) and senior Adam Weisz (6-1, 175 lb.).  Taylor was the most accurate three-point shooter last season, knocking down 45 percent of his attempts, while Weisz came on huge in the final game of the year making the difference in the Yellowjackets’ road win over Northwest Nazarene University.
           
Adding to the new look of the Jackets will be nine key recruits, many carrying impressive accolades.  Three key seniors, DaVell Jackson (6’1, 175 lb.), Lasha Parghalava (6’3, 205 lb.) and Mike McCrary (6’8, 205 lb.) are in the lineup with Parghalava and McCrary bringing Division I experience to the MSUB back court.  Jackson comes in as a former most valuable player in the Scenic West Conference and first team NJCAA all-America and National Tournament first team all-America.  Parghalava comes to MSUB from the University of Hawaii, where he started 50 percent of the U of H games.  Coming in from Cal State Northridge, McCrary also brings all-conference selection honors from the College of Eastern Utah. 
           
Three junior transfers bring proven track records that impacted the programs they left before coming to MSUB.  DeAndre Chambers (6’2, 170 lb.) comes in as a “combo guard” from nationally ranked Western Oklahoma State, while Jason Tanascu (6’2, 175 lb.) joins the Yellowjackets from Carroll College and Tyrone Williams (6’5, 215 lb.) comes in as a forward from Miles City Community College.
           
Three first year players will round out this year’s roster.  At post, look for Andrew Hickman (6’7, 250 lb.) from Woodward, Oklahoma. while Freshmen Joel Barndt (6’8, 185 lb.) comes in from Billings Central High School and Rob Trabing (6’3, 190 lb.), from Buffalo, Wyoming comes in at guard.  In time, Hickman is expected to bring much needed size and girth to the program, while Barndt, who will redshirt this season, is expected to become a mainstay in the future of the program. 
           
“I like the group of athletes we’ve brought in,” Pfeifer said.  “We have added some decent pieces to the puzzle.  The key to our success will be in getting everyone to learn his respective roll and the roll of each team member.  Our depth, which was an issue last year, is much improved this season.”
           
The schedule will once again be challenging and the preseason polls have the Jackets picked fifth in the GNAC.  The goal will be to continue the momentum and further advance the program in the GNAC.

“Our league will once again be one of the toughest in the country,” Pfeifer said.  “If you show up without your ‘A’ game, chances for success are not great.  I like this team and believe in what it can become.  We have guys who really like to play, practice and have been very exciting.”