 Shifting gears of the hardwood, the BSU men's basketball season kicked off this past weekend down at the Wisconsin Dells with a mixture of youth and experience on this year's roster. They're ready to surprise. The Beavers are back on the hardwood and finally got some game action this past weekend in the NSIC M-I-A-A Classics. It was a great test for us. We got to go play Lin Nguyen, central model who are to the top teams in their conference. So we got to see what we did wrong and what we can improve on, but we also got to see what our strengths are. And with conference season right around the corner, this roster mix with young and experienced players are still building the chemistry. We have a pretty good nucleus of guys, but there's still a lot of guys that are new to the system that we're still trying to figure out and how we're going to utilize them. That includes sophomore captain Kyle Sorenson finally seeing his first action as a Beaver. He hasn't played in a cup two and a half years. Some of the things that we're counting on him are outside shooting, good decision making, being really smart, a good passer from the post play. Offensively the once again, Lin on their top two returning scores, JVon Green and Sharif Black along with senior guard Christian Bacarek, but also hope to get big minutes off the bench from sophomore Ford Lucas Nguyen who averaged over 15 points his first two games. I think I built more confidence throughout the year last year. I started off a little slow and then I finally picked it up when we played with Sanford and then I think that confidence is just stuck in with me and now I know I can do that. So with a mixture of youth and experience, the Beavers are ready to turn some heads this season. We're young, but that doesn't mean anything. I mean we can go out there and compete with everyone so I feel like we're not by any means close to being where we could be, you know, in the middle to the end of the year. So we're just still trying to figure out, you know, ways to get better on a day by day basis. So busy weekend ahead for the Beavers, three games total on the schedule, all at home kicking off with Valley City State Friday at six. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.