MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – Barry University men’s basketball team opens the exhibition season 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Louisville in the KFC Yum! Center.
The game will be broadcast on WAVE 3 TV in Louisville and streammed through gocards.com Network.
The Buccaneers, who went 19-9 with a trip to the NCAA Division II National Tournament a season ago, return eight players, including four starters. The Bucs fell to No. 26 Delta State, 82-77 in overtime in the national tournament.
Barry junior forward Yunio Barrueta is a Sporting News preseason Honorable Mention All-American after averaging 14.1 points per game and pulling down a team-high nine rebounds per game. Senior guard Deric Hill broke school records in assists (215) and steals (70) last year, while scoring 10.8 points per game. He played one season at Florida International under Louisville head coach Rick Pitino’s son, Richard Pitino, now the head coach at Minnesota. Senior guard Juan Ferrales, also a second-year FIU transfer, led the Bucs in scoring (15.7 ppg) last year. While at FIU, both Hill and Ferrales played in the Yum! Center on Dec. 19, 2012 in the Cardinals’ 79-55 win. Senior forward Savad Garner (9.4 ppg, 6.6 reb) pulled down 87 offensive rebounds last year, which ranks sixth in school single-season history.
The Buccaneers also return the Sunshine State Conference Freshman of the Year, forward Adrian Gonzalez, who scored 11.5 points per game off the bench while shooting 54.5 percent from the floor. Sophomore guard Arie Williams averaged just under five points a game while shooting 37.9 percent from three-point range. Barry also brings back junior guard Toure Hunt, one of the team’s quickest players, and sophomore forward Alvaro Simoza, who returned after appearing in 19 games a season ago.
Barry brought in three Division I transfers including 6-foot-8 bookend forward/centers Tray Leonard, who spent his first two years at Fordham, and Jevoni Robinson, who played two seasons at North Carolina State. Shooting guard Anders Haas, who played at Albany, which won an opening round NCAA Division I National Tournament game last year, is also in the mix. Leonard averaged 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds as a freshman and 4.5 points and 4.2 rebounds as a sophomore. Robinson appeared in 17 games with the Wolfpack in his two seasons in Raleigh, N.C. Haas shot 34.1 percent from beyond the arc and 84.6 percent from the free throw line.
No. 9-ranked Louisville, which won the 2013 NCAA Division I National Championship and went 31-6 before losing to Kentucky, 74-69, in the Sweet 16 of last year’s tournament, return preseason All-American Montrezl Harrell. A 6-foot-8 junior, Harrell is the Cardinals’ leading returning scorer and rebounder (14.0 ppg, 8.4 reb). He shot 60.9 percent from the field a year ago. The Cardinals also return senior guards Chris Jones (10.2 ppg, 37.7 percent 3-point range) and Wayne Blackshear (8.2 ppg, .433 FG) from a team that outscored their opponents by 19.9 points per game last year.
“We hope that we can go up the ladder and continue to improve, and hopefully have a year that we’ll all be very proud of,” Bucs second-year coach Butch Estes said. “I do believe that we earned a lot of respect last year. I’m sure that teams will come in with a lot more preparation and purpose every time we play this season than they did last year.”
GAME NOTES
LAST TIME OUT: Barry lost to No. 26 Delta State, 82-77, in overtime of the first round of the NCAA Division II Tournament on March 15.
SERIES RECORD: Barry and Louisville are meeting for the first time.
EYES ON OPPONENTS: The Cardinals worked out at Barry last Christmas for a week in Miami Shores ... It was then that talks of this game began.
ESTES & DIVISION I: Barry second-year coach Butch Estes had a nine-year record of 135-122 while coaching at Division I Furman ... His teams beat Wake Forest, 80-68, on the road in 1987 and Villanova, 77-73, in overtime at home in 1989 ... At Presbyterian, his team beat Texas-San Antonio.
HILL-PITINO CONNECTION: Barry G Deric Hill played two years at Florida International, one season under then-head coach Richard Pitino, Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s son who now coaches at Minnesota.
WORTH MENTIONING: Jr. F Yunio Barrueta was named a preseason Honorable Mention All-American by Sporting News ... He had 12 double-doubles last season, ranking 20th in the country ... Barrueta scored in double figures in the final 22 games ... He reached double figures in 25 of the 28 games in 2013-14 ... He was a Second Team All-South Region choice.
SECOND TO 1: Barry was picked second in the Sunshine State Conference preseason poll behind No. 6 Division II Bulletin-ranked Florida Southern.
RECORD SETTER: Last year Deric Hill broke the school season records for assists (215) and steals (70) ... He was fourth in the nation in assists per game (7.6) and total assists ... He was seventh in the country in steals per game (2.5) ... He is the only player in school history with 200 assists in a season ... Hill was a Second Team all-conference pick.
RAINING 3s: Barry Sr. G Juan Ferrales’ 83 3-point FG made last season is second in school history ... Cliff DuBois holds the record of 89 in 1997-98.
HELPING HANDS: Barry ranked fourth in the nation in assists per game as a team at 18.9 last year, a figure which broke a school record.
FRESHMAN OF YEAR: Soph. F Adrian Gonzalez was voted the SSC Freshman of the Year ... His 11.5 ppg was third best by a freshman at Barry.
2013-14 BUCS RECORD WHEN ...
Overtime Games: 1-1
Home Games: 11-3
Road Games: 6-4
Neutral Games: 2-2
Night Games: 16-3
Day Games: 4-6
Leading at Halftime: 14-5
Trailing at Halftime: 5-4
Tied at Halftime: 0-0
After a Loss: 6-2
Scoring 80+ points: 13-2
Scoring 70-79 points: 5-4
Scoring 60-69 points: 1-1
Scoring 50-59 points: 0-1
Games Decided by 2 points or Less: 3-3
Games Decided by 5 points or Less: 8-5
Games Decided by 10 points or Less: 11-7
Games Decided by 11-20 Points: 4-2
Games Decided by over 20 Points: 4-0
Outrebounding Opponents: 15-5
Opponents Outrebound Bucs: 4-4
Matching Opponents in Rebounds: 0-0
Committing 10 or Fewer Turnovers: 3-1
Committing 11 or More Turnovers: 16-8