It is almost an entirely new cast of players for the Lincoln men’s basketball team this season, but it is a cast the Blue Tigers feel their fanbase is going to fall in love with.
The roster has 15 newcomers -- five freshmen and 10 transfers -- that is poised to put a product both on and off the court that Jefferson City can be proud of when the Blue Tigers open up the regular season today with a 7 p.m. game against William Woods at Jason Gym.
“We have good guys, first and foremost,” Lincoln coach Jimmy Drew said. “We as a staff found that we have a bunch of fighters on our team, they never quit. … Anytime we have a minute on the clock, they keep fighting all the way through and that’s something I give them a lot of credit for.”
The Blue Tigers started out on the right foot last Monday, traveling to Kansas City for an exhibition and knocking off UMKC 59-56, for the first win for the program against a Division I opponent since the 1978-79 season.
It was a monumental win for the program, but Drew knows his team needs to put that behind it and focus on the schedule ahead.
“It’s definitely good momentum for our program and it’s good for recruiting,” Drew said. “In terms of this team, that’s over for us. We have to move on. We were able to see some things we did pretty well, but we didn’t play our best basketball. We left a lot out there.
“… We have to move on from that because we got another one coming up on Monday against a good William Woods team.”
The Blue Tigers were able to pick up players in the transfer portal that will help the team significantly this season.
Lincoln landed three Division I transfers -- Artese Stapleton (Radford), Emmette Page (Evansville) and Caleb Wright (High Point).
The Blue Tigers found other pieces that will play big roles elsewhere in the transfer portal in Jamar Madge Jr. (State Fair Community College), Kevin Kone (Georgia Southwestern), Frank Yetna (St. Petersburg), DJ Richardson (Frank Phillips) and Sam Rautins (Daytona State) -- the brother of former NBA player Andy Rautins.
“The experience that we brought in through the transfer portal is huge for us, I think that played a big part (against UMKC) in us handling our business down the stretch,” Drew said.
Lincoln feels its five freshmen (Calvon Clemons, Dylon Turner, Tyvin Garrison, Letroy Atkins Jr. and Brendan Maltbia) will gain a lot of experience this season and will be great building blocks for the future of the Blue Tigers.
“We have some young guys that have played significant minutes for us that we plan on building this thing around for years to come that fans are going to enjoy watching as well,” Drew said.
Lincoln feels its mix of experience and youth can play to its advantage this season and beyond.
“It’s been really good so far for us,” Drew said. “All of our captains are upperclassmen and they have been doing a good job of relaying messages. … The important thing is that our upperclassmen have bought in and they are going hard every day in practice. The younger guys look up and see that and they don’t have any excuses. They have no choice but to buy in as well.”
The Blue Tigers will be looking to play an up-tempo offense that gets out in transition, while slowing teams down on defense and forcing opponents to do things they aren’t comfortable doing.
“We do have a number of good guards that can really get downhill and go make plays with shooters to space the floor us,” Drew said. “And we have some big guys that can finish and love running the floor. It is to our advantage to get out and run.
“We play out in the passing lanes. We are out pressuring, denying on the wings, we want to make people uncomfortable. We want to pressure them and get them out of what they do. We want to make them find Plan B, so to speak. We are going to pressure, try to create a little havoc and hopefully create some easy ones the other way.”
Lincoln will be getting more help in December when senior Sai Witt becomes eligible.
Witt played for the Blue Tigers during the 2020-21 season and averaged 15.9 points and eight rebounds a contest. He transferred away from Lincoln but ended up back on campus during last season and has been waiting to become eligible since.
“I love Sai, he plays with an edge,” Drew said. “He’s a really gifted offensive player. I don’t think there is a ton of guys offensively at this level that are better than him. He has great touch, he a great feel for the game and he passes well. We already know he can score.”
Drew will get his first taste of Jason Gym tonight.
“I am excited,” Drew said. “I’ve heard a ton about it. It feels like it’s all happened so quick and it’s taken forever all at the same time. I am so excited to see it.”