MURFREESBORO, Tenn.—The Hornets have arrived in Murfreesboro, Tenn., for Friday's season-opener at Middle Tennessee State University.
The Hornets have been through four weeks of practice and two exhibition games and there is plenty of excitement to begin the new season even though there is always a question of whether you're ready or not.
“The game is tomorrow so we have to be ready,” Head Coach
Lewis Jackson said. It is exciting and I am excited for these guys to get out and have the opportunity to see what we've accomplish in our weeks of practice and these two previous exhibition games. Hopefully, we got better from those two outings.”
The Hornets will face an experienced Blue Raider squad that boasts four returning starters from last year's 27-7 team. MTSU went 14-2 in the Sun Belt Conference winning the regular season crown. After their upset loss in the OVC quarterfinals, MTSU extended their season into the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) where they beat Marshall, a 2011-12 ASU opponent, and then they beat Tennessee before losing in the quarterfinals to Minnesota.
ASU has
Luther Page,
Stephawn Brown,
Anthony Price and
Josh Mason back to lead the Hornets into the season-opener. ASU will have eight players making their debuts tomorrow night against the talented Blue Raiders.
Coach
Lewis Jackson has always tried to play a tough pre-conference season and tomorrow night's contest is the first in a season which will see the Hornets play Florida, Central Florida, Chicago State, Detroit, Evansville and Georgia Tech.
“We always play a tough non-conference schedule,” Jackson said. “Even with all the young guys coming in that has not changed. It is also difficult to get games and this is one we could get and we were happy to come up here and play.”
The Hornets and Blue Raiders will tip off in the Murphy Center at 7:45 p.m. There will be a live stream of the game available for $7.95. Live stats and live audio will also be available, just check the Hornets Game Day Central for all of the information.
