SEASON PREVIEW
The Warriors enter season No. 2 under head coach and Warrior alum Bryan Smothers in 2023-24.  Smothers and the Warriors went 8-17 a season ago, including a GLIAC mark of 5-13 with a chance to make the league tournament on the final day of the regular season.

Smothers and his staff will look to three returning starters to lead the way, including Ray Williams, Jr. (69 career games, 59 starts), Kaimen Lennox (25 games at WSU, 21 starts) and Carmelo Harris (18 games, 17 starts).  Harris is the team's top returning scorer with 13.3 points per game a season ago followed by Lennox and Williams with 9.6 and 9.0 per contest, respectively.  Williams is Wayne State's top returner back in the rebounding department with 6.0 boards per outing, while Lennox dished out an average of 2.5 assists.

That trio of Warriors join six others coming back in Justin Ross, Justice Gordon, Chris Mutebi, Bryce Esman, Eli Lohr and Matt Coffey.

WSU's seven new faces include a trio of transfers in Colin Golson, Jr. (Siena / Eastern Michigan), Kareem Aburashed (Macomb CC) and Tamario Adley (Macomb CC).

Those three come in with a quartet of rookies in Jordan Briggs, Hutch Ward, Rob Lee, Jr. and Adam Ayrault.

Last season, Wayne State proved to be one of the better defensive teams in the conference ranking second in scoring defense (68.6 points per game) and third in field goal percentage defense (44.1 percent).

Schedule wise, the Warriors are slated to play 27 games in the regular season, including 25 against Midwest Region opponents, 18 within the GLIAC and 14 at home inside the Fieldhouse.  WSU faced Oakland and Detroit Mercy in exhibition contests before the season opener at home this Friday at 5 p.m.  Wayne State's entire non-conference portion will also feature Malone (Nov. 12), Lewis (Nov. 18), Lake Erie (Nov. 21), Lawrence Tech (Nov. 26), Tiffin (Dec. 2), William Jewell (Dec. 16), Quincy (Dec. 17) and Fanshawe College (Dec. 30).

GLIAC wise, Wayne State will play against each of the other nine teams in the league twice, including once at home and another on the road.  Following the regular season, the top eight teams in the conference standings will qualify for the GLIAC Tournament, which begins on March 6.  For the quarterfinal round, the higher seed will host, before the highest remaining seed hosts both the semifinals (March 9) and finals (March 10).

The Warriors will look to qualify for the GLIAC Tournament for the first time since their 2020-21 campaign.

THE SERIES
Wayne State and Hillsdale have faced each other 87 times in their history.  The Warriors hold a seven-game edge at 47-40 and WSU is 31-15 in the all-time series when hosting the Chargers.  Each of the last three meetings have been settled by six points or less.

Wayne State and Malone have considerably less history with eight contests in the all-time series.  The Pioneers have taken six of those eight meetings, including the last five in a row.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
For the first time in 16 years, Hillsdale's head coach will be someone other than John Tharp (501 career victories), who was just appointed as the school's Director of Athletics.  Taking over is Tharp's top assistant for the past three seasons Keven Bradley, who became the 28th head coach in program history.  In three years at Hillsdale under Tharp, Bradley helped lead the Chargers to three straight NCAA Division II Tournament berths, three consecutive seasons of 21 or more wins, two NCAA DII Midwest Regional final appearances and the program's first-ever Midwest Regional title and NCAA DII Elite Eight appearance in 2022.  Back this season for the Chargers are All-G-MAC forward Joe Reuter (12.5 PPG), Charles Woodhams (6.4 PPG), Eric Radisevic (5.8 PPG) and Ashton Janowski (2.2 PPG).  HC was picked to finish sixth in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches Poll.

Malone also enters the 2023-24 season under a first-year head coach in Charlie Wallrapp.  Wallrapp is the 12th head coach in school history and comes to the Pioneers after three seasons as an assistant coach at Northern Michigan.  The Omaha, Neb. native was a 2020 NABC Under Armour 30-Under-30 Recipient.  This season, MU was selected to finish second-to-last in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches Poll.  The Pioneers lost their top three scorers, but return Simon Blair who averaged 9.8 points per game a season ago.

RECAP AT OAKLAND (EXHIBITION)
OU scored the first four points and never trailed in the contest.  The Warriors trailed by seven (33-26) before a Colin Golson, Jr. jumper which preceded a four-minute scoring drought by WSU.  Golson scored down low off a feed from Tamario Adley to make it 35-30 with 3:32 remaining in the opening half.  The Golden Grizzlies scored nine of the final 11 points of the first half to lead 44-32 at intermission.  Wayne State cut the margin to 10 on four occasions in the second half, but that would be as close as the Warriors could get.  Carmelo Harris tallied a team-high 13 points, while connecting three times from beyond the arc, along with dishing out a team-best four assists.  Golson chipped in with 11 points, and tied Adley for team-high rebounding honors with seven boards apiece.

RECAP AT DETROIT MERCY (EXHIBITION)
WSU out-scored the hosts in each half, and had five players in double figures, plus another player with eight points and eight assists.  Wayne State was up six at the break, 47-41, with a lead as big as 15 in the first half (33-18) and 16 in the second stanza (71-55).  Carmelo Harris scored a team-high 17 points, which included a squad-best three triples.  Matt Coffey contributed 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting, while Colin Golson, Jr. added 14 points.  Ray Williams, Jr. chipped in with 12 points, with Jordan Briggs notching 10 points.  Tamario Adley tallied eight points and a game-high eight assists.

LIVE ON WDTK
All men's basketball contests (both home and away) will air live on WDTK - The Patriot (1400 AM / 101.5 FM).  Fans can also listen to the audio online at PatriotDetroit.com.  This will be the 22nd consecutive season WSU basketball has been aired on 1400 AM.

Kevin Brechmacher returns for his eighth season calling the WSU men's games on WDTK.  He will be joined on the broadcast of home games by either Chuck Key (2014-18), Marcus Moore (2014-18) or Andy Dold (1998-2002), all former Warriors.

In addition, every men's basketball GLIAC contest will be televised on FloSports (flohoops.com) per the GLIAC agreement with FloSports.  In addition, all home non-conference games for the men will also be on FloHoops.