Written by Blake Riggle
The Harding University Bisons men’s basketball team was selected fourth in a recent GSC coaches’ poll. The top four teams in the West Division advance to the conference tournament in March.According to the coaches’ poll, Arkansas Tech gained the top spot with 47 points in the poll and was the preseason favorite in the GSC West. Delta State made it to the second spot with 38 points; Christian Brothers were third with 36 points and Harding received 34 points.”You look and see how close everyone is, and it looks to be a really contested race,” head coach Jeff Morgan said. “I think it is as wide open as it has ever been.”However, Morgan said he doesn’t really read much into the polls.”It’s kind of one of those things,” Morgan said. “What do the polls mean anyway? Our job is to go out and compete at a high level.”Senior guard Stephen Blake said he was of the same mind.”We will be better than fourth when it’s all said and done,” Blake said.The team was looking to build on a strong finish last season when the Bisons won six of their last seven games to qualify for the GSC tournament, where they made a quarterfinal run.”We worked really hard this offseason to get to this point, and we all know we have a lot of work ahead of us to get to where we know we are capable of going,” senior center Matt Ragsdale said.The Bisons are returning five upperclassmen to the court, each of whom were major players in the previous season. Senior forward Kevin Brown started 27 times while leading the Bisons in scoring and rebounds. He averaged 13.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. Junior forward Kirk Porter started 25 times last year. He ranked second on the team in scoring and rebounds with 10.4 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.Senior guard Stephen Blake started 15 times last year. He ranked second in all of the GSC and sixth in Harding single season history with an 88 percent free throw percentage. Senior guard Sam Brown started 15 times last year and led the team with 37 three-pointers. Ragsdale started 16 times and is expected to be an anchor on the defense inside.”This year’s team is a little bit deeper inside, and compared to past years [the team overall] is better,” Morgan said.The Bisons’ first home game is Nov. 18 versus Lambuth University at 7:30 p.m.
