It’s A New Year

Basketball season is right around the corner, and with the NAU men’s basketball team starting practices last weekend, we can start looking at key players for this team.

With the team losing four seniors, the Lumberjacks are looking for some young players and even some transfers to fill in the spots that will be missing in that starting unit.

One senior especially, Gabe Rogers, will be missed for his incredible shooting ability and being the leading scorer on this team.  The Jacks will be looking at sophomore DeWayne Russell to step in and become the go-to scorer for this NAU squad, which finished 11-21 overall and 8-12 in the Big Sky Conference last season.  Russell averaged 14.4 points per game last season, only second to Rogers.

This team is relatively young, with the lone senior being Max Jacobsen, who really started to shine toward the end of last season, averaging 9 points and 5 rebounds per game.  There are seven juniors, two sophomores, and six freshmen on this NAU roster, including all of the new transfers and recruits.

The Lumberjacks are in beginning stages of practices and displayed their talent before the Phoenix Suns scrimmage this past Saturday, participating in a 3-point contest, dunk contest and a skills challenge.

NAU begins its season on Oct. 30 when it hosts Arizona Christian for an exhibition game.  Then they begin regular season play on the road at University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) on Nov. 9.

This will be a great season for the basketball team, and coach Jack Murphy could have these guys back in the Big Sky tournament in no time.

Posted December 10, 2013 19:33

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