Army Set For Season Opener At #5 Oregon

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point men's basketball team is scheduled to tip off its season at nationally ranked Oregon on Friday night as part of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.

That contest is slated for an 8 p.m. Pacific Time start.

Both teams made it to the postseason just a year ago with the Ducks dropping an 80-68 decision to Oklahoma in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight and the Black Knights falling 79-65 to host NJIT in the opening round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TELEVISION • Pac-12 Network
ONLINE • Pac-12.com
RADIO • Army West Point Sports Network
WBNR (1260 AM, Beacon, N.Y.) • WLNA (1420 AM, Peekskill, N.Y.)
AUDIO • Knight Vision
LIVE STATISTICS • goducks.com
TICKETS • goducks.com
TWITTER • @ArmyWP_MBB
GAME NOTES • Army | Oregon

INSIDE INFO
In March, Army handed the head coaching duties over to Jimmy Allen, who spent six seasons on staff as an associate head and assistant. He has been tasked to replace the Black Knights' entire starting five, who had tied for the Patriot League's best overall record at 19-14 last season. Sophomore guard Jordan Fox (2.6 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 2.3 apg) is one of just two players on the roster that started a game last season, joining senior forward Mac Hoffman (1.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg). Army, who fell in last season's Patriot League semifinals to eventual champion Holy Cross, will have a youthful roster with 10 sophomores and 10 freshmen.

ROSTER BREAKDOWN
Army's roster features just six upperclassmen with four seniors and two juniors on the team. The Black Knights lost 75.8 percent of their scoring and 69.6 percent of their rebounding from last season. The Black Knights added 10 players as part of the Class of 2020. Army's roster has players from 14 different states. North Carolina is home to six players, the most of any single state.

CAPTAINS ANNOUNCED
The Black Knights named their 2016-17 team captains prior to the start of the season. Seniors Richard Brown, Scott Mammel and Hoffman were chosen by their teammates.

PRESEASON POLL
The Army West Point men's basketball team was projected to finish 10th in this year's Patriot League preseason poll. The Black Knights garnered 23 points after losing all five of their starters from a year ago.

Lehigh was selected as the overwhelming favorite receiving 17 first-place votes to finish in front of Boston University, who garnered the remaining three votes.

The Mountain Hawks earned 161 points out of a possible 162 as they return Preseason Player of the Year senior forward/center Tim Kempton, the two-time Patriot League Player of the Year. The Terriers (139) were voted second, with last season's regular-season champs Bucknell (132) in third. Holy Cross, the defending Patriot League Tournament champions, was selected to finish fourth in the poll with 115 points, while American (86) edged Colgate (83) for fifth place. Loyola Maryland (69), Navy (49), Lafayette (43) and Army (23) round out the preseason poll.

ABOUT THE DUCKS
Oregon was picked as the Pac-12 preseason favorite to start the 2016-17 campaign. The Ducks begin this season ranked No. 5 in the nation according to both The Associated Press Top-25 Poll of Media, and the USA Today Coaches' Poll, the highest preseason ranking for Oregon in program history. The Ducks return four starters from last year's Pac-12 regular-season and tournament championship team.

Junior forward Dillon Brooks also garnered preseason honors being tabbed a preseason All-American by The Associated Press. Just a year ago he became the first Ducks sophomore to reach 1,000 career points. He averaged 16.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.1 assist per game in 2015-16. Joining him will be the single-season blocks record holder Chris Boucher (12.1 ppg, 5.4 ppg, 2.9 bpg), Pac-12 all-freshman wing Tyler Dorsey (12.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and national assist-to-turnover leader Casey Benson (6.0 ppg, 4.9-to-1 A-TO-R).

A WIN OVER OREGON WOULD...
Hand Army its third-straight opening night victory. It would also earn the Black Knights a 1-0 edge on the all-time series with the Ducks.

ARMY VS. PAC-12 TEAMS
The Black Knights are 2-11 all-time against current members of the Pac-12 conference. Of the 12 schools in the league, Army has faced Utah (4 times), Oregon State (2 times) and Washington (2 times) the most. Army leads two series against Pac-12 schools in USC (1-0) and Washington State (1-0). The Cadets have also competed against California (0-1), Oregon State (0-2), Stanford (0-1), UCLA (0-1), Utah (0-4) and Washington (0-2).

NEXT UP
Army kicks off its home season when it welcomes Mount Saint Mary College (N.Y.) on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. tip. That contest will be played in Christl Arena. The Knights were projected tied for fourth in the North Division of the Skyline Conference preseason poll.

Army West Point Athletics

Army Set For Season Opener At #5 Oregon

Related News

Players Mentioned

Richard Brown

Jordan Fox

Mac Hoffman

Scott Mammel

Related Videos