The Buzz Peterson Era, Part 2, will tip off tonight at Holmes Center when Appalachian State begins the season against UNC Wilmington.
It will be a busy opening weekend for the Mountaineers, who will travel to play East Tennessee State on Saturday as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase, a round-robin tournament that will include games against Arkansas, Louisville and Morgan State later this month.
Peterson, who coached the Mountaineers for four seasons culminating with a Southern Conference title in 2000, is back for his second term as head coach. He'll have a veteran team with four returning starters, including top scorers Donald Sims and Kellen Brand and leading rebounders Ike Butts and Josh Hunter.
Peterson is expecting improvement from a team that went 13-18 last season but to do so, turnovers will have to be reduced from last year's average of 17.5 a game, which ranked near the bottom among Division I teams.
The Mountaineers have endured a few ailments in preseason camp, but Butts and Hunter, both of whom had off-season knee surgeries, are now back after missing practice time while recovering. Also expected back tonight are Ryann Abraham, Andre Williamson and Tyler Webb, who missed last Friday's exhibition game against Mars Hill as result of the flu.
"We have sprayed the locker room, every door handle, the light bulbs and whatever you could think of to make sure we don't get any more," Peterson said.
The Mountaineers did have a concern in the 94-81 victory over Mars Hill, committing 26 turnovers.
"I didn't think we'd have that many but part of that was my fault, because we saw a defense that was totally different than we had been showing our guys in practice..." Peterson said, hoping to get a handle on the problem. He was also bothered by the fact that Mars Hill had 14 offensive rebounds.
"We've got to finish every defensive possession with a box out, we've got to be conscious about that," said Peterson, who otherwise said he likes what he sees in his team.
"This team can score," said Peterson, whose Mountaineers got 33 points from Sims in the exhibition. "I don't think offense will be a problem, but we want inside touches as much as possible. I want to get that mindset defensively that we're going to stop people. Some nights the ball isn't going to go in for you, but you can at least bring your defensive mentality and stop people."
UNC Wilmington has its top three scorers back from a 7-25 team, and Peterson noted that two games in two days to begin the season will be a challenge. Attempts to adjust the schedule didn't work.
"We'll just have to make do," Peterson said. "In the conference tournament you have to go back to back, and I told our guys we won't make any excuses. We knew about this months before and we'll just do the best job we can. It's not like we're going on a long trip (Saturday), it's just an hour or so to Johnson City."
tbowman@wsjournal.com.
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