Don’t look now, but college basketball season is almost here.  William Penn’s men’s team opens its season this weekend with home games Saturday afternoon (11/7) against Missouri Baptist and Sunday afternoon (11/8) against Harris-Stowe State.  The Statesmen go into this season as the preseason favorite in the Heart of America Athletic Conference and ranked fourth in the national NAIA preseason poll.  Statesmen Coach John Henry says this year’s team will have plenty of depth, with two All-Americans returning.

“Especially with COVID, you know who’s going to be quarantined.  And one good thing that we have is if we lose three or four guys, we’ve got three or four other guys that can step in and play…and play at a high level.

“As far as the All-Americans, Karmari Newman and Kevion Blaylock were All-Americans last year.  Nate Gehring was All-Conference and so was Eddie Dailey, all four of them are back.  Q Cager, Brandon Faison, Josh Watkins, Ahmad Pender.  We’ve got a lot back and this is a fun, fun group.

“It was heartbreaking to go 30-3 and be heading to Nationals and have it be cancelled within 72 hours of winning the Conference tournament last year, so they’re pretty motivated.”

Again, the Statesmen men’s basketball opener is Saturday at 4pm against Missouri Baptist.

Because of coronavirus restrictions, Penn Gymnasium will be restricted to just 275 spectators—30% of capacity.  You’ll need to get tickets online and you can do that at Statesmen Athletics dot com.