3 things you need to know about MTSU men's basketball ahead of the 2023-24 season
Middle Tennessee State men's basketball begins regular-season play Monday at home against Northern Kentucky (7:30 p.m.).
The Blue Raiders are coming off a 19-win season (11-9 in Conference USA) in which they lost in the second round of the CUSA tournament and did not play in any postseason tournaments.
Coach Nick McDevitt's squad has won 45 games during the past two seasons. Following are things to know about the Blue Raiders entering the 2023-24 season:
MTSU men's basketball picked as co-favorite in CUSA preseason poll
CUSA coaches picked MTSU and Liberty in a tie to finish first in the league this season. Both teams received 71 votes.
Blue Raiders returning starters Camryn Weston and Elias King were picked on the preseason All-CUSA team.
Weston, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, was second on the team in scoring (10.6 points per game) and rebounding (4.6 per game) and leading the team with 91 assists last season. King, a 6-8 senior guard, averaged 9.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game and hit 56 3-pointers last season.
MTSU gets bigger in offseason
After having very little roster turnover (including no transfers in or out) heading into the 2022-23 season, MTSU's roster got a considerable makeover heading into this season.
Gone is starter DeAndre Dishman (who was a seventh-year senior last season) and the Blue Raiders lost five players to the transfer portal, the most notable being leading scorer Eli Lawrence (Texas A&M) and Teafale Lenard, who originally committed to transfer to Memphis but later entered the NBA G-League draft and was taken in the second round by the Texas Legends.
The Blue Raiders return three starters and added some size inside during the offseason.
Joining Weston and King as a returning starter is 6-6 junior guard Justin Bufford, who averaged 5.1 points and 2.3 rebounds last season. The only other player returning with considerable experience from last year is junior guard Destin Porter, who averaged 5.9 points in 33 games with five starts.
MTSU does return redshirt senior guard Jalen Jordan, who missed the past two seasons because of a knee injury. He started 19 games in 2020-21, averaging 9.4 points a game.
MTSU added some size, getting 6-11, 300-pound forward Josh Ugundele from Iowa in the transfer portal and signing 6-11 freshman forward Chris Loofe from Missouri's Link Year Prep and 6-8 junior guard O'zhell Jackson from Coahoma (Miss.) Community College.
Jackson averaged 13.6 points, 11.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.1 blocks per game last season at Coahoma. He'll play a wing, but his size will allow him to defend multiple positions.
The Blue Raiders also added two transfer guards in 6-5 redshirt junior Jacob Johnson, a Long Island University transfer who scored in double digits in 15 games last season, and 6-5 senior Ty Mosley, a Mississippi Valley State transfer who averaged 11 points and four rebounds.
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MTSU men's basketball to play five games on national TV
MTSU will play five nationally broadcast games during the regular season.
The Blue Raiders will play at home vs. Belmont on Dec. 9, (7:30 p.m.) on CBS Sports Network. Other CBSSN appearances will be at home Jan. 11 against Louisiana Tech (8 p.m.) and at UTEP on Jan. 18 (8 p.m.).
The Blue Raiders will have two games on ESPNU: Feb. 3 at Western Kentucky (7 p.m.) and March 2 at Sam Houston (7 p.m.).
Several other games, including CUSA contests, will be aired on ESPN+.
Big games on the non-conference schedule include the opener vs. Northern Kentucky, a squad that reached the NCAA Tournament last season and played a close game vs. Houston. The Blue Raiders play at home vs. UAB on Nov. 21 (6:30 p.m.) and will travel to Murray State on Dec. 30 (3 p.m.). They will also play Nov. 24-26 in the Bahamas at the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Challenge.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU basketball: What to know as Blue Raiders open 2023-24 season
