Weekend's Classic At A Glance• The Lindenwood Lions men's basketball team will open the 2015-16 season this week at the Southwestern Oklahoma State University Classic. The Lions will take on the host school on Friday night at 7:30 p.m., followed by a 2:30 p.m. game on Saturday against Southern Nazarene.
• The two games this weekend will be the start of the
Lance Randall for the Lindenwood men's basketball program. Randall has been the head coach at NCAA Division II Saint Leo for the past four seasons. He went 78-44 at Saint Leo, won the first conference championship in program history, and advanced to three NCAA Division II National Tournaments. Randall has previous St. Louis experience, being the head coach at Webster University and an assistant at Saint Louis University.
• Lindenwood is 0-1 all-time against Southern Nazerene. The meeting took place during the 2010-11 season, with the Crimson Storm winninging 79-71 in St. Charles. The Lions and Southwestern Oklahoma have not met in their recent histories.
• Lindenwood returns nine letterwinners from last year's squad that went 17-12 overall and finished third in the MIAA with a 12-7 mark. Among the returners are three starters in guard
Nick Van Osdale, forward
Cory Arentsen, and center
Sam Mader.
Lindenwood Notes• Lindenwood finished seventh in the MIAA last season with 72.4 points a game, and it was third in scoring defense with a 66.4 mark.
• The Lions led the MIAA last season with 8.6 three-pointers made a game, and with a .430 three-point percentage. Four different players, including returning players
Cory Arentsen and
LJ McIntosh, averaged at least one three-pointer made a game.
• Forward
Cory Arentsen is the top returning player for the Lions. He was an honorable mention all-MIAA pick last year after finishing ninth in the conference with 15.3 points a game, and 16th with 4.8 rebounds a game.
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Sam Mader is the team's top returning rebounder. He averaged 5.0 rebounds a game, which ranked 13th in the MIAA.
Cory Arentsen was just five rebounds behind Mader.
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Nick Van Osdale started 17 of the final 19 games last season for Lindenwood. He had one of the top assist-to-turnover ratios on the team with a 1.7 mark.
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LJ McIntosh was the top guard off the bench last year for the Lions. He averaged 6.6 points and 1.1 assists a game, and was second on the team with 21 steals.
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Zachary Biggs was one of the top rebounders off the bench last year. He averaged 11.7 rebounds per 40 minutes of play, the highest mark on the team. He also grabbed nearly 20 percent of available rebounds when he was on the court.
• Lindenwood returns 55 percent of its scoring from last season, and 56 percent of its rebounding.
• The Lions added seven players to their roster over the offseason. Six are tranfers including three from the NCAA Division I level, one from the NCAA Division II level, one from a junior college, and one from overseas. The team has one true freshman on the roster.
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Jake Showalter's last collegiate appearance was in the NCAA Division I Tournament. He was a member of the North Dakota State team which won the Summit League last year and played Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament.
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Stanislas Heili, who measures in at 7'1", is believed to be one of the tallest players in Lindenwood history. Starting with the 2007-08 season, the Lions have not had a seven-footer on their roster.
• Fourteen of Lindenwood's players come from five different states, including six from Wisconsin, three from Missouri and Illinois, and one each from Indiana and Minnesota. The Lions also have one player from France, and one from Bulgaria.
• Lindenwood's two assistant coaches,
Terry Hollander and
Steve Showalter, have won a combined 835 games and four state championships at the high school level.
• Lindenwood was picked seventh in the MIAA preseason poll, just behind Fort Hays State and ahead of Central Oklahoma. Northwest Missouri was first in the ranking.
A Glance At The Opponents• Southwestern Oklahoma State returns three starters and six letterwinners off of last year's team that went 16-13 overall and 9-11 in the GAC.
• The top returning player is forward Martell Collins. He was a second-team all-GAC pick after averaging 15.5 points and 8.5 rebounds a game.
• The Bulldogs went 0-2 in exhibition play, losing to Arkansas by a 103-58 score, and falling to Oklahoma City by a 73-30 margin.
• Head coach of Southwestern Oklahoma State is Bob Battisti. Battisti is in his fourth season at the school and has a 33-23 mark.
• Southern Nazarene, which opens the season on Friday night against Nebraska-Kearney is coming off a 13-14 season in 2014-15. The Crimson Storm went 9-11 in GAC action.
• Southern Nazarene returns its top four scorers from last season in LB Willis (13.7 ppg), CJ Rodriguez (11.4 ppg), Francisco Hukill (11.3 ppg), and Garrett Butler (8.9 ppg).
• The Crimson Storm defeated McPherson by a 103-64 score in their only exhibition game of the year.
• Head coach of Southern Nazarene is Adam Bohac. Bohac is in his eighth season at the school, and he has a career mark of 142-78.
