Barton Men's basketball will start its season Friday night, hosting the North Dakota State College of Sciences. The Cougars are talented as always, but unfamiliar, as 11 of the 13 players on the roster were elsewhere last year.
In a scrimmage last week against McPherson College, a four-year school, Barton had chances but lost by one point, a result that head coach Jeremy Coombs attributes to the talent on the squad. But, he says they have to get better at playing together to get to where they want to go.
"That exhibition game, we were in the ballgame simply based on talent. Our execution wasn't quite there. It's an every-day process. We've tried new things these last five or six practices. Basically we're just statting everything, showing guys, 'Hey, this is what you're shooting, this is how many turnovers you had in practice, how many rebounds you had.' So, I think that's kind of helping to establish some of those guys that need to get to the basket, and the guys that need to go rebound, crash the boards, different things like that. It's kind of been eye-opening and we're starting to see some bright lights coming on this week. So, I'm pretty pleased with our practices and the direction we're going.
Barton tips off the season Friday night, with coverage after the women's game. Both games will be aired on 1590 KVGB and 95.5 FM, starting at 5:15, before returning to the home for Cougar athletics, B104.3 The Point, on Saturday.