Brandon Noel and Wright State will take the court against Lamont Butler and No. 23 Kentucky on Monday.
Wright State will head on the road on Monday night, the opening day of men’s college basketball, to take on the No. 23 ranked team in the country, Kentucky, at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. The Wildcats are under a new head coach for the first time in decades. Mark Pope is taking over for the legendary John Calipari, who is now at Arkansas. Because of that situation and scenario, this team looks vastly different than it did a year ago. All of the team’s projected starting lineup spots by CBS Sports are transfers. It starts in the backcourt with guards Lamont Butler and Otega Oweh.
Butler played last season with San Diego State and was an all-defensive team member in his conference. Oweh was a member of Big 12’s Oklahoma. The frontcourt is led by Dayton transfer Koby Brea, who shoots 49.8% from behind the line. With Brea stars, ex-Wake Forest Demon Deacon Andrew Carr, who is also a versatile three-point threat, and Oklahoma State’s Brandon Garrison, who was a former All-American and averaged 1.5 blocked shots per game.
Along with all of those transfers, Pope brought in his best player from BYU in Jaxson Robinson. The depth for this team is rounded off with Arizona’s Kerr Kriisa and Drexel’s Amari Williams. They will be taking on the Raiders of Wright State tonight. They are bringing back the team’s leading rebounder last season in Brandon Noel.
The 6-foot-8 junior averaged 14.5 points and 8.0 rebounds and is expected to be a pivotal piece of this offense. Senior Alex Huibregtse is also back with the team after averaging 12.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game last year. They team did lose its two leading scorers, though.
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