College Basketball: Five things to watch as Abilene Christian men begin 2023-24 season
The Abilene Christian men’s basketball team opens the season against Oklahoma State at 8 p.m. Monday in a non-conference game in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Here are five things to watch going into the Wildcats’ season:
Can the Wildcats bounce back?
ACU saw its string of four consecutive winning seasons come to an end last season with a 13-17 record.
The Wildcats posted a school-record four consecutive 20-win seasons before last season — compiling a 96-34 record in that span.
ACU also didn’t go to a postseason tournament for the first time since the 2016-17 season. There were no postseason tournaments the 2019-20 season because of COVID-19.
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Golding’s return
Joe Golding returns to Moody Coliseum when the UTEP Miners play ACU at 3 p.m. Dec. 17 in a non-conference game.
It will be Golding's first game at Moody since taking the Miners’ job after the 2020-21 season, and it will pit him against Brette Tanner, who was Golding’s assistant for eight years before taking over as the Wildcats’ head coach after Golding’s departure.
Golding, a former ACU point guard, came back to coach the team and led the Wildcats to their first NCAA Division I tournament appearance in 2019 — losing to Kentucky 79-44 — and then notched a historic 53-52 upset of Texas in the first round of the 2021 NCAA tournament.
Golding, who was 158-144 in 10 seasons with ACU, coached the team its final two seasons in the Division II Lone Star Conference and endured six losing seasons, including four during the transition to full D-I status.
His patience finally paid off as the Wildcats won two Southland Conference titles (2019 & 2021), going 71-23 his last three years with the program before taking the UTEP job after the 2020-21 season.
Contending in the WAC
The Wildcats are picked to finish fifth in the Western Athletic Conference according to the conference’s preseason poll. Grand Canyon is expected to defend its league title, followed by Stephen F. Austin, Seattle and Utah Valley.
ACU finished ninth in the WAC last season with a 7-11 league record and bowed out in the first round of the WAC tournament with a 69-62 loss to eighth-seeded California Baptist — a year after reaching the conference tournament final.
Grand Canyon, which tied Seattle and Stephen F. Austin for third in the WAC standings at 11-17, ended up winning the conference tournament and lost to Gonzaga 82-70 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Tough start
The Wildcats might need time to catch their collective breaths after starting the season against some impressive opponents.
After playing Oklahoma State, a 20-16 team last season, the Wildcats play North Carolina State at 6 p.m. Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Wolfpack went 23-11 last season, falling to Creighton in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
ACU returns home to play Prairie View A&M on Nov. 14, before going to the Paradise Jam tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands (Nov. 17-19).
The Wildcats open WAC play at Texas-Arlington (Nov. 29), before playing Stephen F. Austin (Dec. 2) at Moody.
Aside from OSU, N.C. State and UTEP, the Wildcats also play Arkansas (Dec. 21) in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks are ranked No. 14 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll.
Shoes to fill
ACU must replace two good ones in Tobias Cameron and Damien Daniels.
Cameron, a 6-foot-5 guard, was second on the team in scoring last season, averaging 9.9 points to go with 4.4 rebounds.
Daniels was a sparkplug at point guard, despite his 5-7 height. He averaged 8.8 points, had 111 assists last season and ranked No. 44 in the nation in assist/turnover ration. He was the Southland Conference Tournament MVP in 2021.
Immanuel Allen, a 6-4 senior guard, is back after leading the team in scoring last season (10.8 points per game), while Ali Abdou Dibba, a 6-4 junior guard, proved a pleasant surprise last season, leading the team in scoring in conference play (11.8 points per game) and fourth overall (9.6). Another key returnee is Airion Simmons, a 6-5 senior forward who averaged 9.6 points last season.
ACU’s calling card is defense, and the Wildcats ranked fifth in the nation in turnovers forced per game (17.6) and turnover margin (5.0) last season, but that didn’t necessarily translate into a great overall defense. ACU was 207th in the nation in scoring defense (71.1 points), and the Wildcats averaged 75 points per game offensively.
ACU gave up 67.6 points in going 25-11 the 2021-22 season, 60.4 points in reaching the second round of the NCAA tournament and finishing 24-5 the 2020-21 season. During the COVID-19 shortened season the Wildcats averaged 65.3 points, going 20-11 overall, and 64.1 points in going 27-7 on the way to that first D-I NCAA tournament appearance in 2019.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene Christian men's basketball: five things to watch this season
