ABILENE, Texas – ACU men's basketball will tip off their 2020-21 season in Estero, Fla. on Wednesday as part of the #BeachBubble at the Gulf Coast Showcase. The Wildcats will begin the tournament with a game against reigning Southern Conference tournament champions, East Tennessee State. Due to COVID-19 concerns three of the original eight teams scheduled to participate in the tournament have dropped out. In addition to ETSU, the remaining participating teams are Austin Peay, Omaha, and Middle Tennessee State. The current schedule has the Wildcats playing one game each day on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
FOLLOW THE GAME
- ACU vs ETSU: Wednesday, Nov. 25 – 10 a.m.
Flo Hoops ($) (Live Video),
StatBroadcast (Live Stats), 98.1 The Ticket with
Grant Boone (Radio Broadcast)
SERIES HISTORY
- This will be the first meeting between the two teams
ACU STORYLINES
- The Wildcats return 10 players from last year's team including four of five starters.
- The biggest loss for ACU was the graduation of
Payten Ricks who led the team in both scoring and steals.
- The team brings in four freshmen, guards,
Logan McLaughlin and
Payton Brooks, and bigs,
Cameron Steele and
Jameson Richardson, as well as
Immanuel Allen who redshirted 2019-20 season.
- Outside of Ricks, the Wildcats return the majority of their scoring, rebounds, and assists.
-
Joe Pleasant was named to the preseason All-Southland first team, he averaged 11.0 points and 4.2 rebounds as a sophomore.
SCOUTING ETSU
- The Buccaneers return only three players who saw action in their 30-4 season from a year ago.
- ETSU placed two players on the Southern Conference preseason team, brothers Ledarrius and Ty Brewer.
- Both Brewer brothers transferred in to the Bucs program with Ty coming from Southeastern Louisiana.
- The Bucs have five different DI transfers on their roster including David Sloan out of Kansas State and Serrel Smith out of Maryland, both who earned NCAA waivers to compete immediately in the 20-21 season.
- While the Bucs have almost an entirely new team, they also have a new coach, Jason Shay, who was named the head coach after serving as an assistant for five years with the program.
TOURNAMENT UPDATES
- With several teams dropping out of the tournament, stay tuned to the ACU MBB social channels for all up to date info about game times or other potential changes.
- The current game time for ETSU is 10 a.m. CT, but that is subject to change.
- All games will be streamed through FloHoops, a subscription based streaming platform. A monthly subscription can be maintained for $12.50 and is able to be canceled at any time.
- The Wildcats schedule will be updated as more information is available about who and when they will play throughout the weekend.
