GAMEDAY CENTRAL

DETROIT (11/10/13) – The University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team will tip-off its 61st season of basketball at Calihan Hall on Monday (Nov. 11) when it hosts the University of Michigan-Dearborn on Dick Vitale Court. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET, following the UDM women's team home opener against Lawrence Tech at 5:00 p.m. ET. Both games will be streamed live on HLN Detroit.

GAMEDAY CENTRAL
Titan fans can follow every UDM game this season through men's basketball GAMEDAY CENTRAL page located on the Titans Athletic Website that will keep fans one click away from all the action. This page will feature links for live stats (audio and video when applicable) as well as links for all the latest info while also making it easy to find the Titans on social media and to purchase photos and game tickets. The Game Day Central page also carries all the information on each opponent from who is leading the all-time series to who won the last game.

LAST OUTING
Detroit (0-1) tipped off its 107th season with a 74-58 loss to South Alabama on Friday night at the Mitchell Center. Junior forward Juwan Howard, Jr. led the Titans with a game-high 18 points to go along with 11 rebounds, while sophomore guard Carlton Brundidge added 14 points and eight boards.

Senior forward Evan Bruinsma and freshman guard Jarod Williams also scored in double figures as both finished with 11 points, while Ugochukwu Njoku grabbed nine rebounds. Bruinsma was also busy on the boards as he finished with eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

Detroit was held to 28.9 percent (22-of-76) shooting overall, including just 7.1 percent (1-of-14) from downtown, while South Alabama shot 36.4 percent (24-of-66) overall, including 34.6 percent (9-of-26) from beyond the arc. The Titans grabbed 51 rebounds and forced 15 Jaguar turnovers, but only dished out five assists on the night while turning the ball over 12 times.

ABOUT DEARBORN
The U-M Dearborn Wolverines, who are led by head coach John Mackson, enter Monday's game 0-2 following a tough 58-49 loss to the University of Saint Francis in their home opener on Saturday (Nov. 9).

Dearborn also dropped its first game of the 2013-14 season to the Roosevelt Lakers 82-47 on the road (Nov. 4). Junior Jamiel Strickland finished with 9 points while freshman Marcus Tillmon-Cornet added 8 points to lead the Wolverines.

CLEANING THE GLASS
Though the Titans dropped their first game of the 2013-14 season, there was definitely one positive to take from that loss and that was their ability to rebound. All together Detroit grabbed 51 boards against South Alabama, including 26 on the offensive glass. The 51 rebounds were the most in game for the Titans since grabbing 50 against Concordia on Nov. 18, 2011. Eight of the nine Titans that played on Friday grabbed at least on rebound, while six came down with at least one offensive board.

Just to note Detroit's school record for rebounds in one game is 77 set against Central Michigan on Jan. 30, 1960.

LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF
Detroit freshman guard Jarod Williams made the most out of his first collegiate game as he finished with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting with three rebounds (one offensive) in just 17 minutes of action off the bench against South Alabama. Now 11 points might not seem like too much, but when you become the first true freshman to score in double digits in your first career game during the Coach McCallum Era, which included Sacramento Kings rookie guard Ray McCallum (who scored six points), then you just might realize you did something special. 

NO RESPECT
Coming off a season in which it made the NIT for the seventh time in school history as well as a postseason tournament for the second-straight year, UDM was picked to finish eighth in the HL preseason poll - voted on by the league's coaches, sports information directors and media members. The annual poll, along with the preseason teams, were unveiled at the Horizon League Media Day at the InterContinental Hotel in Chicago.

Green Bay was selected as the favorite to win the league with 21 first place votes and 390 points overall, while Wright State was picked to finish second with 389 points, including 22 first place votes. Cleveland State was slated to place third with 338 points and two first-place votes.

Oakland is projected to finish fourth totaling 258 points, ahead of fifth-place Youngstown State's 219 points, as both teams received one first place vote apiece. Defending Horizon League champion Valparaiso was picked sixth (205), followed by UIC (151), Detroit (141) and Milwaukee (69).

The last time Detroit was picked in the bottom half of the Horizon League in the preseason poll was the 2009-10 season when the Titans finished with a 20-14 record.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW
The Titans welcome an impressive recruiting class of five talented student-athletes in Patrick Ackerman, Paris Bass, Matthew Grant, Patrick Onwenu and Jarod Williams to the roster this year, along with sophomore guard Carlton Brundidge, who was ineligible last season after transferring from U-M. Brundidge was a four-star recruit in both Rivals.com and Scout.com and was ranked 75th in the 2011 ESPN 100 coming out of Southfield High School.

HOWARD, BRUINSMA TEAM CAPTAINS
Detroit head coach Ray McCallum has announced that senior forward Evan Bruinsma along with junior forward Juwan Howard, Jr. have been selected as team captains for the 2013-14 season.

Both Bruinsma and Howard played in 32 games last year and bring a wealth of experience to share with all the new Titans.

MOVING FORWARD
Detroit has a core of student-athletes returning who either started or participated in more than 30 games last year, including forwards Evan Bruinsma and Juwan Howard, Jr. Bruinsma played in 32 games as a junior averaging 5.6 points and 4.3 rebounds, while Howard started the first 27 games of the 2012-13 season tallying 7.6 points and 3.2 rebounds.

The frontline also includes senior centers Ugochukwu Njoku and Olumide Solanke along with senior forward Jermaine Lippert who all saw playing time last year. Njoku appeared in all 33 games last season and finished with 20 blocked shots, while Lippert played in 28 games for the Titans last season averaging 1.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game.

SENIOR DRIVEN
This season Detroit will look upon its four seniors Evan Bruinsma, Jermaine Lippert, Ugochukwu Njoku and Olumide Solanke for leadership. Last year the four combined to play in 100 games and averaged 8.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and recorded 39 blocked shots.

MEDIA PACKAGE ANNOUNCED
The announcement was made that men's basketball games will be back on the radio on 97.1 FM The Ticket and 1270 AM. The Titans will also have at least 18 games on WADL or Comcast 900, which doesn't include the games already announced to be televised on the ESPN Family of Networks. The women will also have games on WADL and Comcast along with other Olympic sports teams.

UP NEXT
Detroit will hit the road again as the Titans will visit Storrs, Conn. to take on No. 18 UConn on Thursday (Nov. 14) at the Gampel Pavilion. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET and will be televised live on SNY and ESPN3. The game can also be heard live online on 97.1 The Ticket's webstream with the new voice of the Titans Dan Leach.