Hoops set for season opening California tourney

Full Game Notes
Basketball Travelers Classic (San Diego, Calif.)
Tournament Host: San Diego State University
Date: November 11-13, 2011

THE PARTICULARS
Bryant University men's basketball kicks off the 2011-12 season — its fourth at the Division I level — at the Basketball Travelers Classic hosted by San Diego State University November 11-13. The Bulldogs will play each of their first three contests in San Diego State's Viejas Arena and have drawn the host Aztecs in a Friday night season-opening bout for both squads (7:30 p.m. Pacific Time). This is the first-ever meeting between San Diego State and Bryant, who will face off against three team in the span of three days to open the 2011-12 campaign. The Bulldogs will see UC Davis in action Saturday (4:30 p.m. Pacific) and will wrap up tournament play with a noontime contest against Southern Utah Sunday.

MEET THE 2011-12 BULLDOGS
After a dramatic improvement a season ago — the Bulldogs boasted one of the nation's largest win turnarounds (8) and was also one of the statistically most-improved teams in the NCAA in 2010-11 — Bryant returns a strong core of experience to the court for the 2011-12 campaign. The Bulldogs lost five letterwinners and two starters from last year's squad, but return nearly every key component to its offense, most notably in the return of reigning Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year Alex Francis and starting point guard Frankie Dobbs. The pair account for more than 40 percent of Bryant's overall scoring offense in 2010-11, and as a team, Bryant brings back 66.1 percent of its points from a year ago. The biggest loss for the Bulldogs came with the graduation of fifth-year senior and 1,000-point scorer Cecil Gresham, who could beat opponents from long range or in the paint, averaging 14.3 points per game with a team-best 70 made 3-pointers. Still the Black and Gold welcome back plenty of talent to fill the holes, including scorers Vlad Kondratyev, Raphael Jordan and Corey Maynard, as well as highly touted freshman forward Ben Altit.

BULLDOGS ENTER FINAL YEAR OF DIVISION I TRANSITION
Bryant University enters its fourth and final season of the mandatory Division I transition period in 2011-2012, also marking the final year in which the Bulldogs will be ineligible for the postseason. The 2011-12 campaign is the program's fourth competing at the DI level and third playing within the Northeast Conference (NEC). Bryant is set to become the 12th full member of the NEC upon completion of Division I Athletic Certification this summer and is slated to formerly join the NEC for the 2012-13 season. Until the completion of its current four-year transition period, the Bulldogs are not eligible for NCAA or conference postseason tournament play, but are eligible for weekly and postseason NEC honors. Bryant will also be included in the conference standings for the third-straight season.

THE SERIES
This will be the first-ever meeting between the Bulldogs and all three weekend opponents.

SCOUTING THE AZTECS
Ranked as high as sixth in the nation last season, San Diego State is coming off a magical year in which it won the Mountain West Conference Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16, all while finishing with a 34-3 overall record under 13-year bench boss Steve Fisher. It will be an entirely new lineup for the Aztecs this season, however, as the program returns without its top four leading scorers from a year ago – a loss which includes the departure of leading scorer and rebounder Kawhi Leonard, who was drafted by the Indiana Pacers and traded to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2011 NBA Draft. Junior Chase Tapley represents the team's lead offensive returner at 8.6 points per game after finishing fifth on the squad last year.

BRYANT vs. THE MOUNTAIN WEST
The Bulldogs have faced off against a Mountain West team just once in program history, a bout that came back in the school's Division II days. Bryant traveled to Las Vegas in November of 2005 to play the Runnin' Rebels in an exhibition bout Nov. 12. The Bulldogs held their own in the preseason tilt, led by 13 points from Chris Burns, but fell to UNLV, 81-63, in the end.

SCOUTING THE AGGIES
After a 10-20 campaign with a 4-12 mark in the Big West Conference in 2010-11, UC Davis returns a core group of players who will look to build on last year's campaign, with senior Eddie Miller (12.5 ppg in 2010-11) leading the way. The Aggies will be without their top two scorers and rebounders from a season ago, but bring back leading blocker Mike Kurtz, who put up 26 stuffs and shot better than 40 percent as a rookie in 2010-11. First-year coach Jim Les comes to the Aggies after spending nine years as the head coach at his alma mater, Bradley University, where he won more than 150 games and led the Braves to the 2006 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

BRYANT vs. THE BIG WEST
Saturday's game marks the Bryant basketball program's first-ever contest against a current member of the Big West. 

SCOUTING THE THUNDERBIRDS
With three of its top five scorers back on the court in 2011-12, Southern Utah hopes to improve on last season's 11-win campaign. Leading the pack is junior Jackson Stevenett, who averaged a team-high 10.1 ppg on the court last season. Matt Massey (9.4 ppg) and Ray Jones Jr. (9.2 ppg) round out the squad's top returning scorers, while the Thunderbirds welcoming four newcomers to the court this season. SUU will have to replace some depth down low after the departure of its top three rebounders. Head coach Roger Reid is eight wins shy of his 200^th career victory, with hopes of eclipsing that mark in his fifth season at the helm of Southern Utah. 

BRYANT vs. THE SUMMIT LEAGUE
Sunday's game marks the Bryant basketball program's first-ever contest against a current member of the Summit League.

OPENING NIGHT
Since the inception of the Bryant men's basketball program in 1963-64, Bulldog teams have done fairly well in season openers, going 27-21 (.563) all-time in the first game of the year. Bryant took the win in the program's first eight season tips, not suffering an opening-day loss until the 1971-72 season. But the Bulldogs haven't been as hot as of late and haven't taken a victory in the season's first contest since 2005-06, when they topped Adelphi, 70-62. Bryant is 6-6 in its last 12 season openers and is winless in its first outing in the program's three-year Division I history. The Black and Gold begin the year on the road for the third-straight season, after falling to nearby Providence College, 96-53, in the 2009-10 season opener at the Dunkin' Donuts Center and dropping a 71-57 decision to Cleveland State to open the 2010-11 campaign.

GOING THE DISTANCE
The 2,548 miles — measured as the crow flies — between Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island and San Diego State University in California are the most the Bulldog men's basketball program has traveled since joining the ranks of Division I. It is not, however, the farthest the program has ever traveled. In fact, far from it. The trip to San Diego stands as the seventh-longest road trip in program history behind former opponents Chaminade University (Honolulu, 5064 miles), Alaska-Anchorage (3374 mi), Alaska-Fairbanks (3260 mi), Cal State Dominguez Hills (Carson, Calif., 2574 mi), Cal State Bakersfield (2573 mi) and Cal State Los Angeles (2564 mi). However, the trip does beat out such former challengers as Saint Martin's University (Lacey, Wash., 2507 mi), the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, Wash., 2489 mi) and UNLV (2349 mi). Prior to arriving in San Diego, the Bulldogs logged the most Division I miles on a 1,028-mile trip to the University of Iowa in 2008-09. Bryant will also take on the University of Arizona later this season (Dec. 22) in Tucson, traveling 2,251 miles as the crow flies to take on the Wildcats.

BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH
Once again, the Bulldogs will field one of the youngest lineups in the nation in 2011-12. With no seniors on the roster, Bryant brings on three players with no collegiate experience and will boast just 17 years of returning experience when the team hits the court for Friday's opener. The Black and Gold average only 1.13 years of post-high school playing experience (including junior college and transfer years) per player in 2011-12, the 16th youngest roster in Division I and the youngest in the Northeast Conference. The Bulldogs will also not play a younger team at any point in its scheduled 2011-12 slate. The most inexperienced team in the nation? UC Irvine, with 0.71 years of experience per player.

DOBB-LE YOUR PLEASURE
Last season, Tim O'Shea and the Bulldogs got Frankie. This season, Bryant gets Happy. The older, wiser, experienced version of his athletic and talented son, it was Happy who made junior starting point guard Frankie Dobbs what he is today — literally. And in 2011-12, the Dobbs factor has doubled, as Happy Dobbs, Frankie's father, joins the Bulldog coaching staff to help teach the rest of the team a bit of what he knows. A former collegiate head coach at Brown (1991-99) and Oberlin (2002-06) and former assistant at Boston College, Cleveland State and Dartmouth, Happy Dobbs was a four-year starting point guard at Villanova from 1980-84, leading his team to four-straight NCAA tournament appearances.

WHERE IN THE WORLD?
The Bulldogs change up their look again this season, most notably in the orgins of their personnel. Despite the school's home in Smithfield, R.I., Bryant boasts not a single player who can be called "homegrown talent." Surprisingly, with no one on the 15-man roster hailing from the Ocean State, there is just one Bulldog — Troy Robinson of Roslindale, Mass. — who even call the New England region home. All-in-all, the Bulldog roster is spread across 10 different states and four countries, touching every corner of the globe.

Maryland leads the way as the only state with multiple constituents (Raphael Jordan, Erick Smith).

Nine additional players all come from different states, some farther — Hawaii (Patrick Matthews) and Minesota (Dyami Starks) — than others, Massachusetts (Robinson), New Jersey (Dan Calandrillo), Pennsylvania (Jordan Harris), Ohio (Frankie Dobbs), Vermont (Joe O'Shea), New York (Alex Francis) and Virginia (Alex Herzing).

Bryant also lists a quartet of international players on the 2010-11 roster, coming from three different edges of the map. Freshman Ben Altit comes to Smithfield all the way from Herzeliya, Israel to join the Bulldog ranks. He is joined by Russian-born junior Vladyslav Kondratyev, who left Russia at a young age and now makes his home in Nikolayev, Ukraine. A pair of Australian sophomores in Claybrin McMath and Corey Maynard bring an entirely different culture to the Bulldog sidelines, making the group as diverse as ever.

UP NEXT
Bryant will finish up Basketball Travelers Classic action with a Saturday contest against the Aggies of UC Davis (4:30 p.m.) and a Sunday tip against the Thunderbirds of Southern Utah (12:00 p.m.) before returning to the East Coast.