Nov. 8, 2005

SAN MARCOS - The amount of success Texas State may enjoy this season will likely hinge on just how quickly and to what extent a sizeable rookie class meshes with a senior-laden group of returners.

Texas State's season unofficially gets under way Wednesday when the Bobcats play host to Angelo State in an exhibition game. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. in Strahan Coliseum.

The Bobcats lost three starters from last year's club that finished 14-14 and made its ninth straight Southland Conference Tournament appearance, a current best among league schools. Among Texas State's departures were three of its top four scorers from a year ago - Zach Allison, Anthony Dill and Josh Naylor. Allison and Dill have both graduated while Naylor will wrap up his degree in the coming year.

With a large chunk of both the team's scoring and rebounding gone, the `Cats will turn to a group of upperclassmen led by seniors Lance Burroughs and Chris Langhorne along with junior Antwoine Blanchard who returns after red-shirting last year.

Burroughs saw more playing time as the season went on, starting Texas State's final five contests. Over the five-game stretch he averaged 6.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, shot 52.4 percent from the field and made 6-of-15 three-pointers. His season averages were 3.1 points and 2.3 boards.

Langhorne provides the Bobcats with the athleticism to play both on the perimeter as well as the ability to get to the basket. As a junior college transfer last year, he started 19 games and made an immediate impact. For the year he averaged 5.4 points and 3.3 rebounds.

Blanchard practiced with the Bobcats last year after playing in 43 games during his freshman and sophomore seasons. During the 2003-04 season, he averaged 1.8 points and had 22 assists while starting two of the 24 games in which he played.

Dependent on the remainder of the football season, two-sport standout Markee White could also be back in the mix this season. Last year he went directly from playing wide receiver for the Bobcats to seeing playing time in 26 games for the basketball program, including 10 starts. At the time of this writing, the `Cats were nationally-ranked and on track to possibly receive a bid to the NCAA Division I-AA football playoffs.

In addition to the returners, this year's basketball squad features nine newcomers - six freshmen and three junior college transfers.

"The learning curve will have to be quick," said Texas State coach Dennis Nutt who begins his sixth season with the Bobcats. "We get an early start to the season with our first game on Nov. 18 and after that they clip off in a hurry. We have done our best to go slow because we have a lot of first-year players and a lot of those are freshmen. We have done more teaching during the early weeks and hopefully that will payoff once January gets here."

Expected to make almost an immediate impact are transfer guard Jeremy Johnson as well as transfer forwards Charles Dotson and Jushay Rockett.

Johnson signed with the Bobcats late after averaging 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals as the team captain for Northern Oklahoma College-Enid. While at NOC-Enid, the Oklahoma City native set the school scoring record.

Dotson was selected to the NJCAA Region 14 All-Tournament team as a sophomore at Navarro College. He averaged 12 points and nine rebounds along with three assists and two steals. Rockett was a member of Western Arizona College's National Junior College Athletic Association regional championship team which advanced to the NJCAA national tournament. He came off the bench to average 10.6 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals for the Matadors.

"We lost a lot of our inside scoring and rebounding with the loss of Anthony Dill and Zach Allison," Nutt said. "We are going to rely heavily on Charles Dotson and JuShay Rocket but we are also going to expect (freshmen) C.J. Webster and Trevor Cook to get a lot of action early. Whether they have only junior college or high school experience, it is going to be an adjustment for all of them. It will be a matter of who makes that adjustment the quickest."

The 6-9 Cook and 6-8 Webster were part of an early signing period freshman class.

Cook can really run the floor for a player of his size and averaged a double-double as a senior at Coppell High School (19 points and 10 boards). Webster also averaged a double-double as a senior, scoring 12 points to go along with 12 rebounds last year at Thurgood Marshall High School.

The other two players in the freshman group signed last fall was 6-6 guard Brandon Bush and 6-8 forward Dylan Moseley.

Bush can play an array of positions. As a senior forward at Mayde Creek High School in Houston he averaged 21 points, six rebounds and three assists. Moseley is a physical player who was the Offensive Player of the Year in District 6-4A as a senior at Frisco High School.

The `Cats also signed the leading scorer among Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex schools when they inked Madison High forward Jason Rogers. Rogers averaged 23 points as a senior. Also new to the program is San Marcos native Justin Neuhaus who prepped at Hill Country Christian High School where he averaged 16 points and seven rebounds.

With the addition of Assistant Coach Charlie Fenske who serves as the defensive coordinator for the Texas State coaching staff, the Bobcats will look to apply more pressure defensively.

"We want to be more aggressive on defense, and in turn, we hope that eases the burden off our offense," Nutt said. "On the offensive end we will have a pretty good mix. We will use a lot of motion as well as utilize some different sets. But if we can get our defense where we want it, I believe we can speed up our play much more. We want to continue to run and I think we have the athletes to do that this year."

Texas State opens its season with a western swing to Utah. The `Cats will take on Utah and Utah Valley State on Nov. 18-19 to open the season. In addition to the Utes out of the Mountain West Conference, the Bobcats will take on teams from the Big 12 (Texas) and Southeastern Conference (Arkansas). Texas State also plays host to Conference USA newcomer SMU to headline the home nonconference schedule.

"I think the schedule has a pretty good mix of tough games on the road but we also have some pretty good home games headlined by the Dec. 1 game against SMU," Nutt said. "We're looking forward to that match up. I believe it is a name opponent our community recognizes and think it will be a good home date for us."

The Bobcats open Southland Conference play at home Jan. 7 against one of the preseason favorites, Lamar.