Despite the first round exit from the playoffs last season, this year’s expectations are at a high point for the Buck’s men’s basketball team.

Last season the team successfully rebounded from one of their worst years in recent memory, a 1-15 record in the 2012-13 season, to reach the playoffs with a record of 10-12.

The men’s basketball coach Don Perry has high expectations for this season and believes that a proper ceiling cannot be placed on his team yet. “If we could change anything, it’d definitely be the way we performed down the stretch, we didn’t finish nearly as strong as we would have liked to.” He said.

Perry believes the key to the team’s success this season will be keeping his team together. “That’s always a key, keep the team together so we can have all our guys out there,” He explained. “If we can do that, if we can keep the team together, we’ll be a very good and strong inside team, with some shooters on the outside.”

Perry citied the loss of key players as the reason for the team’s inability to make it further into the post season. “Last season we got off to a pretty strong start in the first semester, but in the second semester, we lost a couple of players for academic reasons,” the coach lamented.

Students attending the upcoming games can expect to see new faces as freshman players make their debuts.

Chemistry isn’t an issue for the men’s basketball team this season, according to Perry. “Chemistry’s not a problem at this point, we do have some new guys but the other players are helping them out a lot right now.” He said. “We have some pretty talented players, if we play more of our game we’ll definitely be successful”

Perry expects a lot from his second year players, especially when it comes to leadership. “We always have a few guys that step up, and I definitely think we have that so far this year, with a lot of our second year guys coming back this season”. He explained.

As for the moral of the locker room, Perry is satisfied with the positive vibe his team is giving off. “The energy is much more positive around here than before last year,” He assured. “Confidence has definitely improved.”