By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Saturday's Nov. 1 season-opener against Augusta (Ga.), followed by a Sunday game against Dallas Baptist in the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Lakeland, Fla., marks the earliest that Washburn University men's basketball coach Brett Ballard has ever had a team open its season.
And by Monday Ballard will know if the early start was more of a good or bad thing for the No. 2-ranked Ichabods, who are coming off a 30-4 season and an NCAA Division II semifinal appearance.
Junior guard Jack Bachelor is a top returner for Washburn men's basketball after earning first-team All-MIAA recognition last season. [File photo/TSN]
"If we go win two games, absolutely I'll be really happy about this scheduling,'' Ballard said. "If we don't, I'll be wishing we had more practices.
"This Hall of Fame event has always been early. It's the first time we've played in it and it's a great opportunity. I would prefer probably another week or so of practice to really put our best product out there, but everybody's in the same boat, everybody got the same amount of practices.''
Both Augusta and Dallas Baptist were NCAA Regional teams last season and DBU, like the Ichabods, reached the NCAA Final Four in Evansville. Dallas Baptist was ranked No. 3 in the NABC preseason poll.
Ballard feels like his team has done a good job in preseason to get ready for the early tests.
"We've had good practices and we're close to where we need to be and this will be a good opportunity to see where we're at,'' he said. "Big picture, if you win great, you learn from it. If you lose, you learn a lot from it.''
Senior Brady Christiansen has played in 93 career games with 31 starts, averaging 6.6 points and 6.2 rebounds. Christiansen ranks 11th in career rebounds in program history with 577.
Elìas Pàlsson, a 6-foot-6 guard from Iceland, is the team's leading returning scorer with a 7.4 average, which was third on the team last season.
Also back is Evan Joyner, who averaged 6.5 points and 4.0 rebounds last season while starting 15 games, and Luis Nonfon, who recorded 4.6 rebounds with with 2.7 points per game.
The Patriots return a veteran roster featuring 12 lettermen from last year's squad, including LSC Defensive Player of the Year Xavion Brown and LSC Sixth Man of the Year Trevor Frank.
Following the two games in Lakeland, Fla. the Ichabods will return to action Nov. 14-15 at the Central Region Challenge at Pittsburg State where the Ichabods will face the Minnesota State-Moorhead Dragons in a rematch of the 2025 NCAA Central Regional Championship.
