Blue Raiders face York University in exhibition action

Thursday, November 2

Murphy Center

7:00 PM

Middle Tennessee

York Univ. (Canada)

Photo by: MT

11/2/2006 12:40:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: MT Media Relations

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Don't try to tell Middle Tennessee men's basketball coach Kermit Davis Thursday night's exhibition contest doesn't count. He will be the first to tell you otherwise. While the exhibition game, which tips at 7 p.m., at Murphy Center, does not count in the standings, it will help go a long way in helping make progress for the season opener at Tennessee, Nov. 10. "We have six guys who have never played in a Division I basketball game and this exhibition game provides great experience for them," Davis said. "We wanted to play an exhibition game against a team that will provide some resistance and York University will do that as evidenced by their play against Dayton and Lipscomb during those teams' Canadian Tour." The Blue Raiders' preseason practices have unveiled a squad that has proven to be unselfish; however, Davis says the team must do a better job of getting practices into the game Thursday night. One player who has proven to be steady and solid from the outset of preseason practice is sophomore point guard Kevin Kanaskie. The State College, Pa., native emerged as a difference-maker during the final third of his freshman season. Upon being inserted into the starting lineup at point guard, Kanaskie helped lead Middle Tennessee to an 8-2 mark down the stretch. "Kevin Kanaskie has been our most consistent guy during this preseason," Davis said. "He has separated himself. His teams win all the games in practice. I'm very pleased with his progress and the manner in which he runs our basketball team." Sophomore center Theryn Hudson also has proven to be consistent during the preseason, as well as freshman swingman Desmond Yates, while senior captain Kyle Young also has provided tremendous leadership and been steady. "I think, based on practices, we have a very unselfish team that looks to make the extra pass and does the little things well, for the most part," Davis said. "The exhibition game is a starting point for us. In certain drills in practice we do very well but we have some difficulty getting in transferring some of it into 5-on-5 drills so what I'm looking for in this game against York University is to see our team get our practice into the game and this provides us our first opportunity." The Blue Raiders, who have produced four straight winning seasons for the first time since 1985-89, open the 2006-07 season at Tennessee, Nov. 10.