2013-14 ESU MBB Quick Facts (PDF)  l  PSAC preseason poll  l  Coach Wilson discusses season

Related: Warriors push Rider in exhibition opener  l  Grant named to DII Bulletin "Super 16"

All-America junior guard Whis Grant, the returning PSAC East Athlete of the Year, leads a new-look East Stroudsburg University men's basketball team as the defending PSAC East regular season champions aim for their fifth straight PSAC Final Four and fourth trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament in five seasons.

Grant and junior point guard Matt Tobin are the only returners among last year's top five scorers, which included two of the top players in school history in forwards Duane Johnson and Terrance King, along with forward Gerald Bridges.

With Johnson and King leading the way, ESU compiled an 82-37 (.689) record over the last four years, won the second PSAC championship in school history in 2012 and made three of the school's four trips to the NCAA Tournament. The Warriors were 22-7 a year ago and won the PSAC East title by one game over West Chester.

Johnson and King were both 1,300-point career scorers, but Grant has led the Warriors in scoring in each of his first two years – 13.9 points per game on the 2012 PSAC title team, and 17.6 last year when he was ESU's first PSAC East Athlete of the Year since 1991, first All-America since 1993 and first All-Region player since 1994.

After earning a spot on the Division II Bulletin's "Super 16" entering the season, Grant will have a new supporting cast along with a group of familiar returners led by Tobin, senior forward Zechariah Runkle and junior forward Lamont Tillery.

Head coach Jeff Wilson, the PSAC East Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2013 and the 2010 NABC DII Atlantic Region Coach of the Year, has put together the pieces to contend for another PSAC East title, PSAC Final Four and NCAA Tournament berth.

If the Warriors advance to the PSAC semifinals again this winter, they will be just the third team in the conference to go that deep in the tournament in five straight seasons in the last 30 years, joining Bloomsburg (1998-02, 5 straight) and California (1992-97, 6 straight). IUP, which has won three of the last four PSAC titles, can also make its fifth Final Four this year.

ESU is one of two PSAC schools receiving votes in the NABC Division II preseason poll along with IUP, which is ranked 14th.

ESU's 94-foot style requires a host of players to fuel one of the PSAC's top teams in scoring (1st last year – 78.0 ppg), offensive rebounding (3rd – 14.1 per game), steals (2nd – 10.0 per game) and turnover margin (+4.9 – 1st in PSAC, 11th in DII) – all staples of the Warriors under Wilson, who is in his 12th season.

THE BACKCOURT

Grant and Tobin should lead one of the top groups of guards in the PSAC. Sophomore transfer Jamal Nwaniemeka from Division I Rider and redshirt junior Will Brown, who missed the last two years due to injury, will be key components along with sophomore Malcolm Richardson, redshirt junior Muhamadou Kaba, redshirt sophomore Chris Stokes and freshman Anthony McKie.

Tobin took over as ESU's starting point guard as a sophomore and was the only Warrior to start all 29 games. He averaged 8.0 points, was second in the PSAC East and sixth overall in the PSAC with 3.6 assists per game and had a solid 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio in more than 27 minutes per game.

As a freshman, Tobin was ESU's top bench scorer (8.1 ppg) on its PSAC championship team, including a career-high 28 points in a win at Cheyney. He shot 38.9 percent from the three-point line and is a career 35.5 percent shooter from long distance in his first two years.

Grant was ESU's top scorer two years ago but wasn't included among ESU's three All-PSAC East selections during the championship season.

That changed last year, as he was just the fourth sophomore since 1988 to be named PSAC Athlete of the Year in either division – which includes ESU's three-time PSAC East Athlete of the Year, Jonathan Roberts, in 1988. Grant enters the season with 925 career points, four more than Roberts had in his first two years, and can join ESU's top two career scores – Roberts (1986-90) and Don Bones (1976-81) as the only juniors with 1,000 career points in school history.

Grant averaged 19.1 points during a school record-tying 14-game winning streak in the middle of the season – including a nine-game stretch in which he put up 22.9 per game and had six 20-point games. He finished the year with 26 points, going 10-for-13 from the field, in a 76-68 loss to IUP in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

He was sixth in the PSAC in scoring and was also tied for sixth in steals (1.9 per game), second in three-point percentage (40.5) and fifth in three-pointers per game (2.4). His 68 three-pointers were second-most in school history, and he already ranks fifth on ESU's career three-point list with 122 and is just seven three's away from third place.

Brown was ESU's top scorer off the bench as a freshman in 2010-11, averaging 8.8 points per game, before missing the last two seasons due to injury. His return gives the Warriors an elite shooter who was 48-for-100 from the three-point line in his freshman year and had six games with at least 15 points.

Nwaniemeka played in 13 games at Rider last year after an All-State season at Conwell-Egan High School, where he was named Lower Bucks County Player of the Year and first team All-Catholic League. He won the dunk contest at ESU's "Midnight Madness" and should be one of the top athletes in the conference.

Richardson played in 22 games as a backup point guard last year behind Tobin and Blair Ramsey, who graduated along with Johnson, King and Bridges. He averaged just over seven minutes per game, contributing 43 points, 24 rebounds and 21 assists, and will be counted on for a larger contribution this season.

Kaba played in 27 of ESU's 29 games off the bench, averaging right at seven minutes per game. He had 63 points and 44 rebounds and was an active offensive rebounder, with 16 boards.

Stokes played in eight games last season and McKie joins the Warriors from Plymouth Whitemarsh, where he was on the All-Suburban One first team and All-Southeast Pennsylvania first team last year. He averaged 20 points as a senior and 18 as a junior at PW after transferring from Wissahickon.

THE FRONTCOURT

While the Warriors have proven experience at the guard spots, they will turn to several players with expanded roles at forward with the departure of Johnson and King, who both rank in the top 10 in school history in career scoring, rebounds and blocked shots.

Johnson (14.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg last year) is one of ESU's most-decorated players ever with three All-PSAC East honors, and King (13.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg) was a two-time All-PSAC East selection and the PSAC Tournament MVP in 2012.

Runkle and Tillery lead the returners after sharing time with Johnson and Bridges at the small forward and power forward spots last season.

Runkle started 11 games, played in all 29 and averaged 4.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. He was third on the team in rebounding, third in blocks (12) and tied for third in steals (31) in 15.3 minutes per game. He had a season-high of 11 points at West Chester, had nine points and 13 rebounds at Mansfield in his first career start, and shot 38.9 percent (14-for-36) from the three-point line for the year.

Tillery, who has played in all 61 games in his first two years, made two starts last winter and averaged 16.0 minutes per game. He posted 5.2 points and 2.7 rebounds – the most among regular bench players – and started vs. IUP in the NCAA Tournament with Bridges unavailable. He tied his career-high with 13 points, going 5-for-5 from the field, in a blowout 102-44 win over Bloomsburg which clinched the PSAC East regular season title in the regular season finale.

Sophomores Wes Cherry and Dajon Todmann are the only other returners after contributing to last year's team. Cherry played in 16 games and scored 18 of his 40 points in the second half of the win over Bloomsburg, and Todmann averaged 2.7 points and 1.7 rebounds in 24 games – including 18 points in a road win at Kutztown.

Three freshmen bolster the frontcourt and will be counted on for immediate contributions.

Rasheed Moore is expecting to earn a starting spot as the season opens, coming off an All-State season at Meyers High School in Wilkes-Barre. He went 56-0 in Wyoming Valley Conference play in four years and won the District title as a junior. Moore earned two All-Conference awards and a second team All-State (AA) spot as a senior when he averaged 16 points and eight rebounds while blocking 83 shots.

Steve Harris, from Notre Dame High School in Hamilton (N.J.), helped his team to the Colonial Valley Conference championship with a 25-4 record, and their first Mercer County Tournament championship since 1988. He averaged 19.7 points and 17 rebounds in three games in winning the KSA Events Disney Holiday Tournament Championship in Orlando and was a second team All-CVC and second team Mercer County selection.

Sultan Aminu averaged 19 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks per game as a senior at Old Bridge (N.J.) and set a school record with 1,235 career points. He was named to the Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division first team and All-Area second team.

THE SCHEDULE

The PSAC added two new members in Pitt-Johnstown and Seton Hill, both to the PSAC West, which moves longtime western division member Lock Haven to the PSAC East this year.

With the expansion, the PSAC has 18 schools in two nine-team divisions – with each school playing 16 divisional games which count towards the PSAC standings, and six "crossover" games which do not.

The league schedule opens with four games in the fall semester this year as the Warriors host Mansfield, travel to Kutztown, host Lock Haven and head to Millersville in late November and early December.

The season opener is Saturday at St. Thomas Aquinas, followed by home games against PSU-Lehigh Valley on Tuesday, November 12 and USciences on Thursday, November 14. The Devils also feature a junior All-America selection in forward Garret Kerr, who was second in Division II with 18 double-doubles last year and averaged 21.1 points and a DII-best 12.4 rebounds per game.

The non-conference schedule finishes with a trip to Washington, D.C. to face UDC on Saturday, November 16.

In the crossover schedule, ESU plays two of the top four teams in the PSAC West preseason poll in No. 2 Slippery Rock (away, December 17) and No. 3 Gannon (home, January 3).

The Warriors' meetings with PSAC East preseason favorite West Chester are January 25 (away) and February 26 (home) in the final game of the regular season.