FLORENCE, SC – The Francis Marion University men’s basketball team opens its 2006-07 season on Wednesday (Nov. 15) as the Patriots travel to Coker College for the 50th all-time meeting with the Cobras.

The local rivalry will tip-off at 8 p.m. in Coker’s Timberlake-Lawton Gymnasium. FMU leads the all-time series 39-10, including a 79-66 win in Florence last season.

First-year FMU head coach Gary Edwards inherits seven lettermen, but only one part-starter, from last year’s 12-16 squad that finished eighth in the Peach Belt Conference regular-season standings.

Leading the returnees is senior frontline player Raymond Dorsey (6.6 points per game, 5.0 rebounds per game). Also returning are a pair of athletic swing players – 6-4 junior Rodrick Burton (3.0 ppg) and 6-6 sophomore Akeene Coakley (4.0 ppg) – who with more playing will be counted on for higher numbers. Senior 6-8 center Kevin Ashford (0.5 ppg) looks to rebound from an injury-plagued 2005-06 season, while in the backcourt, guards Artis Lee (2.5 ppg), Larnelle Peterson (1.6 ppg), and Paul Braxton (1.9 ppg) return.

Edwards pointed to Dorsey, a Wilson High School product, and Ashford as the two that would likely start at the power forward and center spots, while Burton and Coakley would battle for the wing, or small forward, position.

Altogether, the Patriots return only 20.1 ppg and 13.3 rpg from last season, so newcomers will also be counted on heavily. Senior transfer Dominic Bishop (Creighton University) and 5-7 freshman Cortne’ Baker will split time at the point position. Nate Morley, a sharp-shooting transfer from Highland Community College, will see minutes at the off guard spot, as will Braxton, Lee, and Peterson.

Benson Stewart, a 6-7 transfer from Brunswick Community College and a native of Darlington, and 6-4 freshman Charles Collins, could also see significant playing time along the frontline. 

“Francis Marion basketball has enjoyed some success, so we have a foundation to build on,” Edwards said. “We want to shore up that foundation with commitment and hard work, and begin to improve in the areas of recruitment of players, scheduling, academics, and marketing and promotions. There is more to a successful basketball program than just winning games.

“Now, we also want to win games and put a good product on the floor, but that is going to take a little time and patience. We hope to improve each day in practice and with each game, so we are playing our best basketball at the end of the season.

“We have weaknesses, but we are going to work extremely hard at the defensive end of the court and perhaps we can overcome a few of those deficiencies. We must be a blue collar type of team which fights and scrapes for everything. We will also need to be a team which creates some offense from its defense.

“Whenever you build an organization or a basketball program, you must get the right personnel on board.  I think we have some good people in this program, who will do their very best this season. Our success may not always be reflected on the scoreboard, but in gains made on and off the court.”

The Patriots’ 28-game schedule includes 12 home games. The squad’s home opener is Saturday (Nov. 18) at 3 p.m. when FMU hosts Savannah College of Art & Design in the second-annual Zaxby’s Tip-Off Clazzic.

FMU was picked to finished 11th in the preseason PBC coaches’ poll. The Peach Belt will have a slightly new look this year with the addition of Georgia Southwestern State University.

The Patriots have outrebounded 81 of their last 113 opponents, and only 25 of FMU’s last 112 opponents have shot above 46 percent from the floor.

Of the five previous FMU head coaches, they averaged eight wins in their first season on the Patriot bench.  Edwards owns a 389-256 career record in 22 seasons on the bench, following stints at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (winningest coach in the program’s history), Charleston Southern University (winningest coach in the program’s history), and Barton College (then Atlantic Christian College).