GAMEDAY CENTRAL

DETROIT (11/6/13) – The University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team will tip-off its 107th season of basketball on Friday (Nov. 8) when it travels to Mobile, Ala. to face South Alabama. The game is scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m. (ET) at the Mitchell Center and will be live on 1270 AM with Dan Leach the new voice of the Titans.

GAMEDAY CENTRAL
Titan fans can follow every UDM game this season through men's basketball GAMEDAY CENTRAL page located on the Titans Athletic Website that will keep fans one click away from all the action. This page will feature links for live stats (audio and video when applicable) as well as links for all the latest info while also making it easy to find the Titans on social media and to purchase photos and game tickets. The Game Day Central page also carries all the information on each opponent from who is leading the all-time series to who won the last game.

LAST OUTING
Detroit concluded its exhibition season with an 89-50 win over Concordia on Saturday night at Calihan Hall. Junior forward Juwan Howard, Jr. led the Titans with 23 points, while senior Evan Bruinsma added 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. With the win Detroit improved to a perfect 11-0 in exhibition games under the guidance of head coach Ray McCallum.

Sophomore guard Anton Wilson also scored in double figures as he finished with 13 points, six steals, four rebounds and two assists, while freshman guard Matthew Grant pitched in 11 points with four assists. Junior forward Patrick Onwenu had another productive game with nine points and eight rebounds, while Ugochukwu Njoku added eight points and six boards.

Detroit shot 48.6 percent (33-of-68) overall, including 38.9 percent (7-of-18) from downtown, while holding Concordia to just 25.9 percent (15-of-58) overall. The Titans defense also forced 23 turnovers and recorded 14 steals and four blocked shots, while dishing out 23 assists.

ABOUT THE JAGUARS
The South Alabama Jaguars have a lot to look forward to as they enter the 2013-14 season under first year head coach Matthew Graves, who spent the last 10 years as an assistant coach at Butler, where his efforts helped the Bulldogs advance to back-to-back NCAA Tournament championship games.

While graves is entering his first season with the Jags, he already knows who he can rely on to help take this team back to the postseason for a second-straight year. Augustine Rubit, the reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year, Antione Allen a three-point sharp shooter and Mychal Ammons the second leading score on the team last year (behind Rubit) bring a wealth of experience.

NO RESPECT
Coming off a season in which it made the NIT for the seventh time in school history as well as a postseason tournament for the second-straight year, UDM was picked to finish eighth in the HL preseason poll - voted on by the league's coaches, sports information directors and media members. The annual poll, along with the preseason teams, were unveiled at the Horizon League Media Day at the InterContinental Hotel in Chicago.

Green Bay was selected as the favorite to win the league with 21 first place votes and 390 points overall, while Wright State was picked to finish second with 389 points, including 22 first place votes. Cleveland State was slated to place third with 338 points and two first-place votes.

Oakland is projected to finish fourth totaling 258 points, ahead of fifth-place Youngstown State's 219 points, as both teams received one first place vote apiece. Defending Horizon League champion Valparaiso was picked sixth (205), followed by UIC (151), Detroit (141) and Milwaukee (69).

The last time Detroit was picked in the bottom half of the Horizon League in the preseason poll was the 2009-10 season when the Titans finished with a 20-14 record.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW
The Titans welcome an impressive recruiting class of five talented student-athletes in Patrick Ackerman, Paris Bass, Matthew Grant, Patrick Onwenu and Jarod Williams to the roster this year, along with sophomore guard Carlton Brundidge, who was ineligible last season after transferring from U-M. Brundidge was a four-star recruit in both Rivals.com and Scout.com and was ranked 75th in the 2011 ESPN 100 coming out of Southfield High School.

HOWARD, BRUINSMA TEAM CAPTAINS
Detroit head coach Ray McCallum has announced that senior forward Evan Bruinsma along with junior forward Juwan Howard, Jr. have been selected as team captains for the 2013-14 season.

Both Bruinsma and Howard played in 32 games last year and bring a wealth of experience to share with all the new Titans.

MOVING FORWARD
Detroit has a core of student-athletes returning who either started or participated in more than 30 games last year, including forwards Evan Bruinsma and Juwan Howard, Jr. Bruinsma played in 32 games as a junior averaging 5.6 points and 4.3 rebounds, while Howard started the first 27 games of the 2012-13 season tallying 7.6 points and 3.2 rebounds.

The frontline also includes senior centers Ugochukwu Njoku and Olumide Solanke along with senior forward Jermaine Lippert who all saw playing time last year. Njoku appeared in all 33 games last season and finished with 20 blocked shots, while Lippert played in 28 games for the Titans last season averaging 1.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game.

SENIOR DRIVEN
This season Detroit will look upon its four seniors Evan Bruinsma, Jermaine Lippert, Ugochukwu Njoku and Olumide Solanke for leadership. Last year the four combined to play in 100 games and averaged 8.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and recorded 39 blocked shots.

MEDIA PACKAGE ANNOUNCED
The announcement was made that men's basketball games will be back on the radio on 97.1 FM The Ticket and 1270 AM. The Titans will also have at least 18 games on WADL or Comcast 900, which doesn't include the games already announced to be televised on the ESPN Family of Networks. The women will also have games on WADL and Comcast along with other Olympic sports teams.

UP NEXT
Detroit will host U-M Dearborn on Monday (Nov. 11) for its 2013-14 home opener at Calihan Hall. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Dick Vitale Court and will be streamed live on HLN Detroit.