Posted: Nov 11, 2021
Men's Basketball Season Preview
The Mesa Thunderbirds men's basketball team's season has offically started.
Jimmy Herrera will take the helm as the Interim Head Coach after the retirement of longtime Head Coach Sam Ballard. Lester Neal will be the Assistant Coach.
"We have been extremely excited," says Coach Herrera. "Many of us identify ourselves with basketball or sports in general. Missing out on an entire season is like missing a piece of ourselves. We can't wait for things to officially start!"
The only retutning player to this year's squad is sophomore guard BJ Burries. Coach Herrera believes that he will "have ideas of who will most likely step up, but you never know until you actually get into playing games."
Coach Herrera's two main goals for this season are "for the team to grow as individuals and as teammates, along with having the team playing our best basketball at the end of the season. If I am able to accomplish these two goals, then we are going to have a pretty memorable season."
Coach Herrera says that the team's goal's are to "win the conference and region tournaments, qualify for the playoffs, and make it to the National Championships. We all know it is a tough task, but everyone is up for the challenge."
The T-Birds lost their first game of the season against New Mexico Military Institute on Monday night by a score of 72-59. The T-Birds will have their first home game of the season on November 20th against the Cochise College Apaches. Click on the link below to see the full season schedule.