Mercer Men’s Basketball Shooting for NCAA Tournament this Season

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – After winning the CollegeInsider.com Tournament last year, Mercer’s men’s basketball team is aiming for the Big Dance this season.

The team held its annual media day Wednesday in Hawkins Arena.

When the season tips off in less than a month from now, the Mercer Bears will return four starters from a team that went 27-11 last season

“We have some unfinished business of winning the conference tournament championship that we weren’t able to accomplish last year,” says Bob Hoffman, head coach of the Mercer men’s basketball team.  “We know that’s not going to be easy, but we believe this team is in a position to get that done.”

It might be a little bit easier this year for the Bears now that Belmont is gone.

The Bruins have dominated the A-Sun Conference the last few seasons, and they’ve even gone far in the NCAA Tournament more than once.

But now, they’ve moved to the Ohio Valley Conference.

“We have many other teams that are very good, talented teams,” says Hoffman.  “Florida Gulf Coast is fantastic, USC Upstate is going to be unbelievable.  Then you have East Tennessee State; you’ve got Jacksonville, who’s perennially very good, and I think will be tough again. And Stetson, I think, is going to continue to improve.”

The Bears finished second to Belmont in the regular season conference standings last season, but they were knocked out of the A-Sun Tournament in the semifinals by Florida Gulf Coast.  Belmont went on to beat Florida Gulf Coast in the finals for its third conference tournament win (and NCAA berth) in five years.

“We were pretty excited about getting to play in the tournament here at home (and) trying to win it, trying to see Belmont in the championship,” says junior forward Jakob Gollon.  “And when we got, in my mind, upset in the semifinal game, a lot of us were pretty devastated, but I do think that that loss, it kind of fueld the fire for the CIT run and into this season.  I mean, we’re a lot–we’ve put a lot of work this offseason and we’re excited.  We’re sick of individuals and this preseason stuff.  We’re ready to get going and play some games; we’re excited.”

It was announced Thursday that the men’s team has been picked by the coaches and media to win the A-Sun Conference this season.

Thursday night, both the men’s and women’s rosters were announced at the school’s annual “Mercer Madness” event.

To find out when the teams tip off their 2012-2013 seasons, visit mercerbears.com.