The Samford Crimson

Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Austin Richardson Bulldog sophomore forward Trey Montgomery goes for the dunk in Monday night's game. It was the Samford men's team's first game inside the new Corts Arena.

The Samford men's basketball team is entering its 102nd season quietly.

The team was picked to finish 7th out of the 11 Ohio Valley Conference teams in the league's preseason poll, which was taken on October 10th at its annual media day. It was one of the lowest pre-season rankings the Bulldogs have received since entering the OVC in 2003.

The Bulldogs recently won both of their exhibition games. They topped Oglethorpe (Division II) 75-62 and slipped past Lindley Wilson (Division III) 42-33.

In both games, the Bulldogs trailed at half-time, surprising many Samford fans.

This season, the Bulldogs, who finished fifth in the OVC last season, are replacing two highly important players: Randall Gulina and Jerry Smith.

Gulina led the conference in scoring last season, and Smith is Samford's all-time assist leader.

On a brighter side, returning for his senior year is Travis Peterson, the two-time preseason All-OVC center for the Bulldogs. Peterson, standing at 6-10, averaged 11.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 blocks per game last season.

Peterson is joined by fellow seniors Joe Ross Merritt (8.8 points per game) and Curtis West (6.0 points per game, 2.5 rebounds per game) as the Bulldogs look to instill the Princeton offense on a relatively young squad.

"I think it will be impossible to replace Randall and Jerry; they were great for us here," Merrit said. "I think we have a lot of young guys that will really help us fill the void left by both of them.

"But I also think you will see a lot more balanced scoring from more guys."

The daunting task of replacing Smith will most likely fall on true freshman Josh Bedwell, who is one of the team's six freshmen.
Although there will be many new faces for the men's basketball team, the familiar face of Jimmy Tillette teturns as head coach. Tillette is the most successful coach in program history.

Tillette carries a 165-129 record as a Samford coach, including an impressive 77-23 record against conference opponents at home.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools