Emory Men's Basketball Tangles With Furman in Exhibition

The 2009-10 edition of the Emory's men's basketball team makes its debut on Friday, November 5, when it plays at NCAA Division I foe Furman University in an exhibition game.  The Eagles and Paladins will square off at Timmons Arena on the Furman campus starting at 7:00 p.m.

Emory head coach Jason Zimmerman enters his fourth season with 11 returning veterans from last year’s squad, including three starters, who fashioned an overall mark of 15-10, 7-7 in the University Athletic Association.  The team’s final record represented the first winning campaign since 2004-05 while the effort in conference outings marked the most wins since 2000-01.

Headlining the returnees for Emory is junior point guard Austin Claunch (Cypress, TX), who garnered First Team All-UAA honors last season after ranking among the league’s top 10 performers in six statistical categories. A starter in all 25 games, the 5-foot-9 Claunch averaged a league-high 36.0 minutes per playing stint and paced the team while ranking 10^th on the national front in assists (6.0 apg). In addition, he tossed in 12.6 points per game, tops on the squad and 10^th on the league ladder.

Junior Alex Gulotta (Briarcliff Manor, NY), 6-foot-1, and sophomore Alex Greven (Winston-Salem, NC), 6-foot-3 look to continue their improvement after emerging as key pieces to the Eagles’ offense last season.  Gulotta came off the bench in all 25 games last season averaged 12.5 minutes and 5.6 points per effort.  He kept opponents off balance with his long-range shooting and paced the UAA with a 50.7 percent mark from three-point range.   Greven also saw action in 25 games, two as a starter, and averaged 19.5 minutes and 8.5 points per game.  He also displayed a keen outside shooting stroke, converting 39.3 percent (35-of-89) from beyond the arc, good for a ninth-place tie among UAA players.

Up front, senior Julien Williams is the most experienced of any Emory player on the roster, playing in a total of 72 games during his career, 61 in a starting capacity. The versatile 6-foot-2 Williams started all 25 games last season and averaged a career-best 8.5 points (tying for third on the squad) and 4.7 rebounds per contest.  

Junior Corey Spraggins, 6-foot-5, and sophomore Michael Friedberg, 6-foot-6, will be key performers.  The hard-nosed Spraggins started 24 contests a year ago and averaged 5.8 points and 2.9 rebounds while Freidberg posted 5.6 points and 3.4 boards per outing.

Zimmerman will be looking to maintain the fast-paced offensive attack from '09-10 that saw the Eagles lead the UAA in scoring offense with a 76.2 points per game average.  Emory shot 39.5 percent from beyond the arc last season, good for 18^th place nationally, and drained a school record 208 treys.

Furman, a member of the Southern Conference, is guided by fifth-year head coach Jeff Jackson and welcomes back 14 letterwinners, including all five starters, from last year's club that finished with an overall record of 13-17.  One of key players back in the fold for Furman is 6-foot-6 senior forward Amu Saaka who paced the Paladins in both scoring (15.8 ppg) and rebounding (7.2 rpg).  Recently, Saaka was chosen to the 10-member 2010-11 preseason All-Southern Conference Team.  Seniors Jordan Miller (13.9 ppg) and Justin Dehm (8.7 ppg) are a pair of productive guards who ranked second and third, respectively, on the team in scoring in 2009-10 and who combined to knock down 101 three-point field goals last season. 

Emory will open the regular season on Wednesday, Nov. 17, with a home game against crosstown rival Oglethorpe University starting at 8:00 p.m.