Texas State Men's Basketball Season Outlook
Texas State will challenge a tough schedule with a lineup that returns seven players who are prepared to take on expanded roles and some veteran newcomers. The seven returning players and fourth-year coach Doug Davalos add continuity to a multi-talented team that includes five new players and three new assistant coaches.
Heading the list of the seven returning lettermen are starters Cameron Johnson and John Rybak. Johnson started 19 games while averaging 9.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last season, while Rybak averaged 10 points and 4.3 rebounds. He connected on 44.3 percent of his three-point shots and made 79.2 percent of his free throws.
In addition, Texas State returns a pair of two-year lettermen in Ryan White and Jonathan Sloan. White played in 29 games behind Corey Jefferson at point guard last year and averaged more than four points per game and shot a team-best 79.6 percent at the free-throw line. Sloan looks to bounce back from a frustrating season in which he had to recover from preseason knee surgery.
Sloan will be joined at the post position by senior Emmanuel Bidias A' Moute and Davalos thinks both players will benefit from the increased playing time. Bidias A' Moute is a very athletic and talented player who Davalos feels could develop into one of the top post players in the Southland Conference.
Texas State also returns a pair of sophomore wing players in John Bowman and Roshun Jackson. Bowman averaged nearly five points in 28 games and made seven starts for the Bobcats despite playing most of the season with a shoulder injury. Jackson averaged two points and a rebound in 28 games while shooting 79 percent at the free-throw line.
Those seven returning players will be joined by four newcomers who will need to provide some immediate help. Freshman guard Dylan Hale may be the most athletic player on the team. Hale is a 6-foot-1-inch guard from Minneapolis, Minn., where he was listed as one of the top 25 players in the state after averaging 14 points per game and leading Washburn High School to a state championship as a senior.
Tony Bishop comes to Texas State from Richland College, where he was named a NJCAA Player of the Year after averaging 15.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, while leading Richland to a national championship. J.B. Conley arrives from Temple College, where he was named the NJCAA Region V Freshman of the Year. Uriel Segura played last season at McLennan Junior College after playing his freshman season at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is expected to proved help at the point position. Texas State also added A.J. Stewart, a transfer from Kentucky, but he must sit out this season per NCAA regulations.
Davalos also welcomes a new coaching staff with the additions of Rob Flaska, Terrence Rencher and Eric Brand. A former head coach at Centenary College, Flaska comes to Texas State after serving as an assistant coach at Texas Southern last season and at Arkansas and TCU before his stint at Centenary. A former standout player at Texas, Rencher spent last season on the staff at Saint Louis and Brand is a former assistant coach at Tyler Junior College. As players, Rencher and Brand ended their careers as the all-time scoring leaders at Texas and at Bethel College, respectively.
Texas State will use this mixture of players and new staff when the Bobcats face a very demanding schedule that includes a nationally-televised game at Arizona State in the first round of the Preseason NIT, along with contests against DePaul, Texas, SMU and a highly competitive Southland Conference slate.