INDIANAPOLIS – The sample size was small, but Malone has already proven it can factor into the seven-team league race based on last year’s results against G-MAC opponents.
The Pioneers, first-year league members, beat Davis & Elkins and Cedarville on back-to-back days to start the 2015-16 season. In an overtime barnburner, Malone edged the Senators and beat the Yellow Jackets on their home floor.
Although still relatively unknown to the rest of the conference, Malone’s sixth-place prediction in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches Poll presented by Under Armour just might be overlooking Casey Kaufman and his Pioneers.
Malone finished its final season in the GLIAC at 7-20 overall, enduring a tough stretch through December and January, but now it's time to see how the Pioneers hold up through the course of the G-MAC conference slate.
Kaufman earned the official endorsement of AD Charlie Grimes with the interim tag removed as he begins his second year leading the program.
“The G-MAC’s going to be really good in basketball,” Kaufman said. “Having played some of the teams we played last year, Davis & Elkins and Cedarville, both those teams return everybody and I think they’ll be really good. I believe every game will be really challenging.”
The Pioneers want to play fast and up tempo. They also want to be known as a tough team, similar to Alderson Broaddus in the way the Battlers play defense.
Malone averaged nearly 75 points per game last season and had five players average double-digit scoring. Brian Stone was the ringleader at 15.2 points per game.
The Pioneers have a solid core of players coming back, including seniors Nick Williams, Brandon Bapst, Christian Graves (11 ppg). Mitchell Spotleson is the team’s leading returning scorer at 12.5 ppg.
Redshirt sophomore guard Nate Sheppard was filling it up with 17.8 ppg in four games before suffering a season-ending injury.
“Christian is a guy that we’re counting on for a lot of things beyond just playing as far as a leader,” Kaufman said. “Him and Nick Williams and Mitch Spotleson are three guys we can count on for leadership.”
“I’m excited to join the new conference,” Graves added. “I know it’s going to be different. I expect it to be good competition; it’s still college basketball. Everyone can play.”
Graves is a leader by example and a veteran fifth-year student-athlete. As one of the more experienced players, the younger guys look up to him. In the first year, Graves made the team goal clear – the Pioneers want to win the conference title.
Malone is going through the rigors of preseason like everyone else and is working to integrate a talented class of newcomers brought in by Kaufman that includes four freshmen and a handful of transfers.