Chippewa Men Open On Tuesday Night

Tuesday, November 6

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

7:00 p.m. ET

Central Michigan University

Concordia (Mich.)

Keno Davis begins his seventh season as the CMU men's basketball coach when the Chippewas entertain Concordia in their season opener on Tuesday at McGuirk Arena.

11/5/2018 5:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes

Austin, Montgomery join returnees Roundtree, McKay and DiLeo to form starting 5

By: Mitch Vosburg, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for.

The Central Michigan men's basketball team opens the 2018-19 season Tuesday (7 p.m.) at McGuirk Arena with a nonleague game against Concordia.

The Chippewas defeated Davenport, 89-84, last week in an exhibition game which saw senior guard Shawn Roundtree Jr. finish with a game-high 29 points.

Roundtree will be joined in the backcourt by fellow senior Larry Austin when the Chippewas take on Concordia.

Austin, a transfer from Vanderbilt, did not play in last week's exhibition, but is expected to be ready to go for Tuesday's game.

Concordia finished 12-18 last season. The Cardinals are 1-2, with their win coming over Defiance, 89-62, last Thursday. Before that, the Cardinals fell to Indiana-South Bend and to Huntington.

Senior guard Jalen Thompson leads Concordia in scoring at 21.7 points per game. He led the Cardinals last season in scoring at 17.3 points per game.

The Chippewas are beginning their seventh season under coach Keno Davis, and the Chippewas are coming off a 21-15 finish in 2017-18, the program's second-highest single-season win total since 2002-03, and the fourth-consecutive season in which CMU finished .500 or better.

It marked the first time the program has accomplished such a feat since the early 1970s.

CMU, which is 5-1 in season-openers under Davis, earned a postseason bid for the third time in the last four years last March and set a program standard by winning back-to-back road games – the first at Fort Wayne, the second at Wofford -- in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

Along with the backcourt of Roundtree and Austin, the Chippewas are expected to start Kevin McKay, David DiLeo and Rob Montgomery in the frontcourt.

DiLeo and McKay, both juniors and both returning starters, averaged 12-plus points per game a year ago, while Montgomery is a 6-foot-6 junior who averaged 6.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last season at Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College.