Murfreesboro, Tenn. - Written By: Ian Wolfe
The MTSU basketball program is feeling good about the upcoming season, seeing a lot of veteran experience on the team.
The Blue Raiders saw standout forward Jared Coleman-Jones leave the program for San Diego State and Josh Ogundele also departed the team along with O’Zhell Jackson.
The loss of Coleman-Jones will be big for the Blue Raiders, averaging 11 ppg, 7.6 rpg, and piling in a total of 35 blocks last season. Chris Loofe is returning this season after a solid freshman season but MTSU has utilized the transfer portal adding depth to the position in Jarred Hall, Christian Fussell, and Essam Mostafa.
“It was good last year that Chris Loofe got a lot of experience as a true freshman at that position.” McDevitt said. “Just his knowledge of what it’s gonna take day in and day out has grown.”
McDevitt highlighted Coastal Carolina and TCU transfer Essam Mostafa as a “high level rebounder” and “low block presence” which he referenced as a need for the team this year.
“Those are two very different players [Loofe and Mostafa],” He said. “But at the same time, fill the same position and allow us to play the same way on both sides of the ball.”
Camryn Weston will also make his way back to the team after missing out most of last year due to an ACL tear in the second game of the season.
Weston wants show everyone what he’s capable of this year saying, “I want to prove that I didn’t miss a beat man. I want to prove that whatever happened is a minor set back for a major come back.”
The addition of veteran transfers while keeping core players is important for the Blue Raiders after coming off a disappointing season, finishing 14-19 and crashing out in the Conference-USA semifinals.
“Still having those guys and then adding players that assimilated well to our team, has been a real plus for our team,” McDevitt said. “We do essentially got 6, 7, 8 new players depending on how you look at it.”
Weston is part of the veteran group of players and feels optimistic about the new roster changes this year, seeing himself in a leadership role to help the newer players.
“I’ve been here the past three years so I kind of know the ins and outs of things around here so it’s just my experience,” Weston said. “We got a whole lot of veterans coming in so they’re experienced as well. It’s been great, chemistry has been there.”
McDevitt expects some adjustments in the beginning but sees impact sooner rather than later with the new transfers coming in.
“There’s new terminology, new players, new teammates, so there is a slight adjustment period but what you hope for in adding that kind of experience [Lands, Mostafa, Counter, Oglesby, etc.], those are all guys that have logged a lot of college basketball minutes, there better not be a learning curve when it comes to what does game day on the road in college basketball look like.”
With an experienced roster this season, McDevitt will hope to see an improvement on his results at MTSU since taking the job in 2018.
The Blue Raiders tip off their first game of the season against Oglethorpe University on November 4 th .
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