The Most Thrilling Part of It All

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   It is finally here, the season openers for the UAM men's and women's basketball squads. The Cotton Blossoms will travel to Montevallo while the Boll Weevils will open at home this weekend.

   The Boll Weevils are coming off of their best season in years. The team of last year went to the regional tournament but lost in the finals to Montevallo. The team lost top senior performers, All-American Billy McDaniel and Brandon Mayweather but in turn, returned starters senior Nate Newell of Monticello and senior J. B. Williams of Compton, Calif. Newell was All-GSC second-team last year and both he and Williams are among this season's pre-season All-GSC second team picks.

   The team is coached by Mike Newell, Nate Newell's father. Coach Newell is in his fifth year here at UAM, and is prepared to do better than last year's 18-10 record. The Boll Weevils were selected to finished second in the GSC pre-season poll. The Boll Weevils open the season with six straight home games followed by a trip to Hawaii. The Boll Weevils open the season with Lemoyne -Owen, Saturday night with a 7 p.m. tip-off.

   The Cotton Blossoms, lead by first-year coach Chris Ratcliff, will head to Montevallo to play in the annual Montevallo Classic. The Cotton Blossoms will play Montevallo on Friday at 4 p.m. and will play West Georgia on Saturday at 2 p.m. They will then travel to Natchitoches, La., to take on Northwestern State before playing their home opener against Southwest Baptist on Nov. 28, which is scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. start.

   The Cotton Blossoms have been chosen last in the GSC pre-season poll. They return no starters but four players from the Gulf South Conference Tournament participant team of last year. The Cotton Blossoms were eliminated from play in the first round by West Alabama and Veronica Lee's last-second shot attempt.

   The Cotton Blossoms and Boll Weevils will be playing mostly on Thursdays and Saturdays as opposed to Thursdays and Mondays because of new scheduling by the GSC. The conference will also be minus one team this year in league play as Central Arkansas made the jump to division I-AA.

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