Courtesy of LehighSports.com
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh men’s basketball team opened preseason practice last Friday as the Mountain Hawks prepare for the season opener on Nov. 11 at Xavier. Lehigh features a strong mix of returning talent and players primed to make their collegiate debuts. The Mountain Hawks are working hard, looking to make it back to the Patriot League Championship Game in hopes of capturing the first league title since 2012.
“It’s an exciting time of the year,” said senior center and two-time defending Patriot League Player of the Year Tim Kempton. “We went through all our preseason conditioning and morning workouts and now, basketball is finally here. Having the team together and having a healthy team is exciting.”
Junior Brandon Alston, along with sophomores Matt Holba and Caleb Sedore are all primed to return following season-ending injuries last season, while a strong freshman class looks to add impressive depth.
“Even though it’s still early, we have a lot we need to accomplish, a lot of new faces that we need to integrate so they can catch up with some of the guys who have played a lot of minutes,” said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. “We know it can’t just start and end with those guys. We need quality depth and we need key contributions in key positions. We know we have to use our time effectively because games will be upon us before we know it.”
Kempton leads a strong core of returnees. The former Patriot League Rookie of the Year and two-time Player of the Year averaged 17.7 points and 9.5 rebounds last season and owns 1,390 career points and 762 boards entering his senior campaign. In total, Lehigh returns three All-League honorees from last season (also senior Austin Price and junior Kahron Ross), along with a 2016 All-Rookie Team member (sophomore Kyle Leufroy).
The team’s core is very experienced after last season’s run, but getting those without college experience up to speed will be imperative.
“We can mesh all this talent together and hopefully form a great team,” said Kempton. “It’s exciting to see everyone around us. It’s exciting to see all these pieces and all these unknowns. I’m very excited to see what players they become.”
Preseason practice is about building a foundation for the year ahead. Reed knows some important things need to happen for the team to reach its goals.
“My thought process and the way in which I go about things is as an educator, a teacher,” he said. “That will include the way in which we play and teaching the techniques. But we also have to really be focused on building the right habits. I’d like to see our Lehigh basketball team come out and be a little bit more assertive, a little bit more aggressive and a little bit tougher than what we demonstrated at the beginning of last year.”
The Mountain Hawks grew into those intangibles last season, especially during their school-record tying 11-game winning streak heading into the Patriot League Championship Game.
“We’re going to be teaching, but we’re also going to be demanding that a lot of the intangible areas – like toughness, commitment and even teamwork – come to the forefront and become part of our identity,” said Reed.
Lehigh’s schedule begins at Xavier on Nov. 11, a No. 2 seed in last season’s NCAA Tournament. The Mountain Hawks then travel to another NCAA team from a season ago in Yale before hosting Princeton, who is coming off an NIT berth. Lehigh also faces Mississippi State, Arkansas State and La Salle to wrap up a challenging November slate.
“Especially since we’re continuing to play top-flight competition early in our nonleague schedule, we’ve got to do a better job of having some of these characteristics that are championship caliber become second nature to us,” said Reed.
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