Fort Hays State men’s basketball opens the 2014-15 season in Maryville, Mo., on Friday and Saturday (Nov. 14-15) with a pair of non-conference games against schools from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The Tigers take on Upper Iowa on Friday at 5 pm, then Minnesota State-Moorhead on Saturday at 1:30 pm. The games are being held at Northwest Missouri State’s Bearcat Arena.
Fort Hays State, which received votes in the NABC Preseason Top 25 Poll, is coming off its eighth 20-win season under head coach Mark Johnson. Johnson enters the 2014-15 campaign as the all-time leader in coaching wins at FHSU with 268. He guided FHSU to a NCAA Tournament appearance last year for the sixth time in his tenure, seeing the Tigers finish 22-8. The Tigers finished fourth in the MIAA regular season standings last year, but solid play in region helped the Tigers give the MIAA four of eight teams in the regional.
Craig Nicholson, although he’s just a junior, has more experience in a FHSU uniform than any other Tiger on the roster this year. All of the other eight returners have not played more than one year for FHSU. Nicholson earned an All-America Honorable Mention selection from Division II Bulletin last year, averaging 17.2 points and 7.4 assists per game. He finished with 222 assists overall and sat a new school record in assists per game, averaging 7.4 per game. He also set a new FHSU record for free-throws made in a season with 190, helping Fort Hays State shoot 78.9 percent as a team at the free-throw line. The team free-throw percentage was also a new school record.
Tomislav Gabric (8.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg) and Jake Stoppel (6.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg) were starters for the Tigers last year. James Fleming returns as the top scorer off the bench at 9.6 points per game. He is the top returner in 3-point field goals made with 46 last year. Also returning for the Tigers are Achoki Moikobu, Jared Tadlock, Nick Capiti, and Drew Kite. Capiti and Kite both redshirted last year.
The Tigers faced Upper Iowa on a neutral court in their second game last year, needing overtime to defeat the Peacocks 97-90 in their first match-up ever. Upper Iowa went on to finish 16-14 last year, but has four starters back from last year.
FHSU faces Minnesota State-Moorhead for the first time in history on Saturday. MSU-Moorhead was one of the teams on the bubble last year that did not get into the NCAA Central Regional. The Dragons have several pieces back from their 21-8 team last year.
As always, these games will be critical later in the season to region rankings, as both Upper Iowa and MSU-Moorhead are from a conference in the Tigers’ region. Northwest Missouri State will also be taking on both teams, just in reverse order of the Tigers over the two days.