Wayne State College men’s basketball is preparing for the upcoming season.  

The coach’s poll has the Wildcats picked third in the NSIC and first in the South.  

“I don’t think polls mean a whole lot, I think it’s a reflection of respect for our program and we have to prove it out on the court,” Head Coach Jeff Kaminsky said. “Decide things out on the court, a lot of these preseason polls are based on what happened a year ago.”  

The basketball team wants to prove themselves in games this season. Last year the Wildcats went 14-12 and 11-8 in the conference.  

WSC begins the season playing in the NSIC/GAC Challenge.  

“We have been on the road the last six years of this challenge,” Kaminsky said. “I’m really looking forward to playing at home these first two games because they are very challenging games. We will play the two top teams in the Great American Conference from a year ago.” 

Kaminsky talked about the type of team he believes he has this year.  

“I think we have a really balanced team,” Kaminsky said. “Two things that are really important that can help is having inside and outside balanced. So having the ability to score inside and having perimeter threats. This team we have this year has much more ability to space the floor and have more perimeter threats.” 

This year’s team has a lot of depth, returning four of the five starters from last season’s team. They also have three players coming back for their fifth year. The Wildcats also brought back the team’s leading in scoring from last season in sophomore guard Justin Eagins. Kaminsky believes this year’s team has a lot of experience that will help them get off to a fast start this season. 

“This group has the ability to have a focus and literally have an urgency every single night,” Kaminsky said. “I don’t feel like we will ever be in a game we will lose and can’t come back and look at what we could’ve changed that. And we understand how difficult and challenging our schedule is. That you can’t go into a game without a lack of urgency and expect to have success. We do not have a game on our schedule that I can tell you we are going to win that game. Our conference is that good, our nonconference schedule is that good.” 

The team is expecting a successful season after losing in the first round of the conference tournament last year. They will begin the season Nov. 11 against Southeastern Oklahoma State at 6 p.m. They finish the NSIC/GAC Challenge on Saturday, Nov. 12 against Oklahoma Baptist at 6 p.m. Both games will be played in Wayne. This will be the first time WSC hosts the challenge under Kaminsky.