Nov. 13, 2009

Cullowhee, N.C. - Favored to win a Southern Conference divisional title for the first-time in school history, the defending North Division co-champion Western Carolina Catamounts open their 2009-10 season on Saturday, Nov. 14 by hosting NAIA-member St. Catharine College at 7:00 pm in the Ramsey Center.

Because of the football road game at Eastern Kentucky, there will be no radio coverage of the season-opener on Saturday night. However, fans can follow all of the action with live Game Tracker by logging onto www.CatamountSports.com.

WCU assistant coach Wade O'Connor is very familiar with the St. Catharine program as he served as head coach of the Patriot program for four years prior to coming to Cullowhee prior to last season. Catamount fans are also familiar with a former SCC product Arnold Gore, who finished his collegiate career at Western Carolina after transferring for his final two seasons.

St. Catharine's roster consists of seven underclassmen, including four freshmen, with five juniors and a pair of freshmen. The Patriots will have played five games coming into the Ramsey Center, opening their season back on Nov. 4. However, the game with the Catamounts will be St. Catharine's third-straight as the Patriots played at Southern Polytechnic in Marietta, Ga., on Thursday and at Tennessee Wesleyan on Friday afternoon.

WCU is the lone NCAA Division I team on the Patriot's 2009-10 roster.

With a roster comprised of nine juniors and seniors, and with a combined six players that started 12-or-more games a season ago, Hunter has perhaps his deepest and most talented squad during his five-year tenure in Cullowhee. WCU posted its first winning season since 1996-97 a year ago, finishing at 16-15 overall which featured an 11-2 mark at home.

The Catamounts are led by five seniors including preseason All-Southern Conference selection, Brandon Giles who ranked second on the team in scoring last year at 13.2 points per game. With 1,021 career points, Giles is the 37th Catamount all-time to eclipse the 1,000 career point barrier, ranking 35th entering the season. Classmate Brigham Waginger led the SoCon in steals a season ago with a WCU single-season record of 81 thefts, and with 195 career steals entering the year is just 26 shy of tying the legendary Henry Logan's school-record 221 career steals.

A third senior, sharp-shooting forward Jake Robinson, is just 111 points shy of reaching 1,000 for his career. The Canton, N.C., native is also closing in on the school's 3-point field goal record, just 51 made treys shy of current assistant coach Anquell McCollum's 13-year old record of 245 made 3-pointers.

After transferring to Western a year ago, seniors Kendall Russell and Adrian Gailliard will add depth and size to the Catamount front line. Russell added a charge off the bench both offensively, but more importantly on the glass. He finished the year at 3.5 rebounds per game, missing a large part of the second half of the season due to a foot injury. Gailliard jumped center for WCU in 20 of the 31 games he started a year ago, averaging five points and three boards a game.

Among WCU's underclassmen is another preseason All-SoCon selection - and reigning conference Freshman of the Year, Harouna Mutombo. The Pickering, Ontario native led the Catamounts in scoring a season ago at 14.4 points per game, tops among league rookies and ninth in the SoCon overall. Also, junior post Richie Gordon was second on the team in rebounding a year ago at 4.5 boards per game, but had a strong second half of the season that saw him reach double-figure scoring four times in the final month of the season including twice reaching 20 points (22 vs. CofC; 23 vs. Samford).

Saturday night's home opener is the first of a school-record 16 home games for WCU in the 2009-10 season. It is also part of a tough opening schedule that will include a road trip to preseason No. 3 Texas (Wed., Nov. 18) and hosting six games in three days as a part of the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic. The Catamounts will face Arkansas-Monticello on Monday, Nov. 23 in game two of the event, with tourney action continuing for Hunter and company with Binghamton (Nov. 24) and Duquesne (Nov. 25).

Tip-off between the Patriots and Catamounts is set for 7:00 pm in the Ramsey Center.

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Western Carolina Head Coach Larry Hunter on Preseason SoCon Teleconference:

Opening Statement:
"At the end of last year, we finished fairly strong in the regular season. We were able to get a share of the North Division Championship with Chattanooga. That really allowed our players to go to another level of confidence in what we were selling and teaching. They now believe at Western Carolina they can win a form of a championship. I think that carried over into the offseason. We had a terrific spring and summer. Our guys got stronger in the weight room. They came back and kept themselves in pretty good shape. Our individual workouts in the spring and here in the fall were at a high level. Our guys have gotten better."

On dealing with higher expectations this season:
"I've dealt with it in my coaching career; unfortunately, our players haven't. Western Carolina hasn't been in this position before. It's a lot better position to be in than to be opposite of that which has been where we have been the last two years. I've talked to our team a lot about that. It doesn't really mean anything at this point. It's nice to have a little respect and that comes from how hard you have worked."

"I'm proud for our seniors, especially Brandon Giles, Jake Robinson and Brigham Waginger. They were our first recruiting class when we came in. There are so many potentially good teams in this league, it's really a toss-up. Our guys are pretty smart and they understand that. There is a lot to happen yet. Just because you're the preseason pick, it doesn't mean you'll end up there. What I like about our guys is that we are hungry, we are working hard and we have good chemistry. We want to compete. That's all I ever ask of them. If we keep doing that, we are going to win some games this year."

On how Harouna Mutombo's experience with the Canadian summer camp helped him grow as a player:
"Two summers ago, he spent time with his uncle Dikembe (Mutombo) down in Houston, Texas. He had an opportunity to work out with some pro players. That was really an eye opener for him that year to see how hard you have to work and to see how strong they were physically and how they approached improvement professionally during the offseason. I think that was a big part of his freshman year. He had dramatic improvement all of last year. He does work hard."

"This summer, he again was humbled a little bit. It showed him that he really needs to continue to get better in some areas. He has improved in several things we talked about in our spring meeting for him to improve upon during the offseason. He continues to get stronger. He has a really good focus to for a sophomore about everything from academics to where he wants to be as a person on and off the court."

On changing the culture of the program in his first four years at Western Carolina:
"We knew when we came in here that there were some issues that we'd need to deal with. I told the administration here that we were going to build them a program so that when I leave, the next person that comes in here will have some players here and have a solid foundation of values and work habits that will hopefully continue to carry the program. This is the third program that I have been part of helping turn around in my career. I've always based it on four basic principles: shared ownership, shared suffering, individual responsibility and collective pride. We talk about those four things a lot and we have ever since I've been here. We are finally to point now where there is a lot more plusses in this area than a lot more minuses. I think if I didn't show up to practice, our seniors and upperclassmen would make sure it was organized, working hard and put together a practice and not miss a beat for a day."

On concerns about the upcoming season:
"You always want to stay healthy. You need to get off to a good start. No season is the same. You can look at a number of college or professional teams that thought they were going to be good because they were fairly good the year before, but it didn't happen. We have to establish ourselves just like everyone else in our league does. You have to re-establish your own identity as a basketball team. You need to do things that you do well and do it with consistency. You've got to find ways to win."

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