Men's basketball team opens regular season on Friday

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team opens the regular season this weekend with high expectations.

And why not, the Titans are coming off back-to-back 30-win seasons and have made it to the final Final Four of the NJCAA Division I men's basketball National Championship Tournament.

The Titans, who are No. 5 in the preseason NJCAA Division I men's basketball poll, have a solid sophomore class returning and a strong group of newcomers ready to make another run in a tough Mid-Florida Conference.

"You see the smile on my face, that is what I think about this team," Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said. "It is a great group of guys who have a lot of talent, they have a lot of work to do but the 1-16 they are coachable and eager to get better."

Jalen Warren, Nathanael Jack, Adriel Rosa and Junior Madut are back from last year and bring experience to this year's team. They also know how hard it will be to repeat.

"We always have high expectations, coach Shulman puts us in position to be successful and we have to put our best foot forward and reach those expectations," Jack said. "Every game is going to be hard but we have high expectations and we have to reach them."

The Titans will be tested as they will have six games against teams in the NJCAA preseason Top 25 poll and the Mid-Florida Conference has two other teams ranked in the state poll.

"We have arguable the No. 1 schedule in the country. We try to schedule a difficult schedule every year and this year is no different. In all honesty, this year may be the toughest yet. Our conference was loaded last year and it is even better this year," Shulman said. "We are excited but these guys are just starting to learn that we have to get a lot better."

It begins Friday at the Tallahassee Tip-Off Classic where the Titans will play East Georgia State and Lawson State Community College. The home opener will be Tuesday night against ASA Miami at Titan Field House at 6 p.m. Admission to men's basketball games is free and you can find the schedule, roster and latest news all season on efsctitans.com