TAMIU Begins Title Defense at Media Day - Ex-TBird Xabier Gomez

The Texas A&M International basketball team continued its recent success in the Heartland Conference in 2016-17 with another regular-season championship. Unfortunately, the group couldn't close being upset in the opening round of the conference tournament.

Now a new group of faces assembles as TAMIU got together on Sunday for Media Day to kick off the 2017-18 season. And the Dustdevils are already excited by the early results from this year's squad.

"These new guys have really embraced the culture and how we do business. It's been a lot of fun," TAMIU head coach Bryan Weakley said. "I can't remember a group that's embraced it this quickly. Whether they will keep moving is another question, but right now I couldn't be more pleased with where we're at."

The Dustdevils had a successful campaign last year going 20-10. They tied two other teams atop the highly-contested Heartland Conference finishing 13-5 in league play, sharing the conference championship with Dallas Baptist and Rogers State.

In fact, TAMIU has been building quite the reputation in the league the past few years. The Dustdevils' Heartland title was their fifth regular-season or tournament championship within the last seven years. No team in conference has more with St. Mary's (4) and Arkansas-Fort Smith (3) right behind them.

"Based on from where we were when we took on the job until now, I'm very pleased with the things we've accomplished and the players we've had. It's been nice to sustain some success for the university," said Weakley, who's in his sixth year. "The best thing about having successful teams is the players have been through it. They hang around for a while and tell the new guys. They see the banners on the wall and there's a winning environment."

But the school has not had much postseason success since winning the conference tournament in 2013-14. Since then, the program missed the playoffs in 2014-15 before being eliminated the next two seasons in the opening round. Both years were the first seasons since the league expanded the tournament from four teams to eight, and TAMIU has lost to a team that wouldn't have qualified for the previous format each time.

Last year, the Dustdevils went in as the No. 2 seed after tiebreakers and matched up with rival seventh seed St. Mary's. TAMIU had won the previous two regular-season meetings but couldn't get the biggest win of their season in the tournament losing to the Rattlers, who finished 12-18.

"Coaches obviously are competitive," Weakley said. "We all want to win the national championship. But when I evaluate a season, I evaluate on how much we maximize our potential. I thought our talent was under especially on the perimeter, but our toughness and desire was through the roof. That's why we were able to accomplish some special things, because of our intangibles."

Any chance of a repeat, however, will rely on a cast of new characters coming together. Gone are nine seniors, most of which played large roles. Most significantly were two that earned postseason honors as guard Denzel Bellot was a first-team All-Heartland Conference player while center Bunja Yaboe earned third-team honors.

Bellot was a first-team All-Heartland Conference player in 2016-17 as he finished 14th in the league averaging 13.7 points while also ranking fifth in steals (1.5), seventh in minutes (31.3), ninth in 3-pointers per game (2.0) and 16th in assists (2.7). Meanwhile, Yaboe was second in blocks (1.5), 10th in rebounds (5.8) and 20th in points (12.2).

Those were far from the only losses. Kenny Hatch (8.8 pts, 3.2 ast) led the way at point guard, forward Jordan VanDeKop (10.6 pts, 5.2 reb, 2.0 ast) was arguably the most dangerous bench player in the conference and Arthur Santanna (6.5 pts, 2.9 reb) started every game as the team's top wing defender.

Also lost are forward Greg Mason (3.7 pts, 2.4 reb), center Deveino McRae (2.7 pts, 2.6 reb) and guards Jake Eynon (2.3 pts) and Marcus Hall (1.0 pts, 0.8 ast).

Four other reserve guards also are not coming back including Malcolm Glover, Fabian MacDonald, Hunter Johnson and Greg Sherman, the latter a United alumnus who played the past two years in Laredo.

With so many outgoing players, this year's squad will be bolstered by its three returning seniors. Forward Dan Milota started 21 of the 22 games averaging 6.5 points and 2.5 rebounds. He also was a threat from behind the arc sinking a team-high 44 percent of his attempts. Meanwhile guard Jeremy Wright averaged 3.9 points and 1.4 assists while Kamari Robinson scored 2.7 points and nabbed 1.2 rebounds per game.

This year's group has 12 total players with 10 being upperclassmen. Along with the three seniors, the group boasts seven junior transfers. They include guards Xabier Gomez (New Mexico Junior College), Andre Johnson (Jones County CC), Chris McDonald (Feather River) and Danny Spinuzza (Lassen College), forwards Shea Garland (Casper College) and Stanley Perrin (Essex County CC) and center Damon Leach (Northwest College).

"We don't have the dominant inside presence we've had the last couple years but we're more athletic on the perimeter, and that will be fun in regards to our defense and getting in transition more," Weakley said. "I think we will rely on our seniors a lot. They need to lead us through the big chunks of the season when it gets tough, because our other guys don't have that experience yet."

As for the underclassmen, alongside sophomore transfer Brendan Ortiz (Paris JC) at guard, United alumnus Ivan Chapa joins the Dustdevils for his freshman season.

Chapa was LMT's 2017 All-City Defensive Player of the Year. He earned consecutive All-Region honors at guard during his stint as a four-year starter for UHS. He was the District 29-6A MVP in 2016 and was a first-team honoree in 2017. During his senior campaign, Chapa averaged nine points, 4.5 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 3.4 steals. He helped United go 31-3 and make runs to the regional quarterfinals, the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight over the past three seasons.

"I watched Ivan play a couple times in high school and I definitely thought he had the ability to be a very good contributor on our level. Depending on how hard he works, he could be more than that," Weakley said. "A big part is he will have to be patient, understand his role early and hang in there."

TAMIU also has three redshirts this season including freshman Marek Hajek (Obchodni Academy Slany) and juniors Dominic Jackson (Allan Hancock College) and Rodrigo Puliceno (Canada College)

The Dustdevils will be on the court for the first time at Maroon Madness on Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. as the men's and women's basketball teams will participate in events including a dunk, 3-point and shooting stars contest. Festivities will begin outside the arena at 6.

TAMIU will have its first on-court action with a scrimmage holding the school's alumni game on Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. The Dustdevils will then begin regular season play by hosting the Conference Challenge event from Nov. 10-11 as the team has matchups scheduled with Chadron State College and South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.