McNeese Men’s Basketball: Southland Conference Media Day

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Southland Conference Media Day was held on Tuesday at Coushatta Casino and Resort in Kinder, and one of the teams with the most hype around them as we get closer and closer to the 2023-24 season resides in Lake Charles. McNeese had a massive offseason as they brought in a new head coach in Will Wade, and made a huge splash in the transfer portal as well.

McNeese however came in second in the Southland Conference Preseason Poll which was released on Tuesday, just two points behind Southeastern despite receiving the same amount of votes.

When asked about the Cowboys being picked to finish second in the conference Will Wade said “We have a ton of unknowns just like most teams in the league do. We’ve got one known in Christian (Shumate) who is back and one of the best players in the league so, the rest of our roster, nobody has really seen them outside of us in practice, and we haven’t seen anybody else’s roster outside of Southeastern who has four of their five starters back and six of their top seven or eight back. I think it’s well deserved where they’re picked because they’ve got the most known commodities coming back, the rest of us just don’t have a lot of known commodities back so I certainly think where everything has been placed is fair, and now we’ve got to go out on the court and play. It really doesn’t matter, wherever you’re picked it only matters where you finish. It matters what you do between now and then to get to the finish line. When you go to the movies, you don’t go to see the beginning or middle of the movie, you go to see the end of the movie, the only thing people remember is how things end, so nobody really remembers how it starts. We’ll take it for what it is, and we’ll try to finish a little higher than where we’re starting right now.”

McNeese isn’t the only team with a completely different outlook entering the 2023-24 season, the Cowboys are one of five Southland teams who have a new head coach entering this season, and with it, the Pokes, like most other teams around the conference, have a completely different roster than they did in 2022-23.

“There’s so many new faces, there’s so many new players, coaches, it’s tough to get a good feel. I think at this point you’re just throwing everything up against the wall and it’s just everybody’s best guess at this point with where the conference is and with all the changes that have occurred within the conference. This is certainly the first step to get the season started, and moving in a positive direction, so this is the starting point, and we want to get to the ending point in March,” said Wade.

Christian Shumate, who was named to the Southland Conference Preseason First Team, withdrew his name from the transfer portal this offseason and returned to McNeese, and on Tuesday he was asked about what it’s been like since returning.

“Since I came back it’s been nothing but good things, I was unsure after the season about how things were going to go, but I kind of just felt comfortable coming back and everybody welcomed me with open arms. Since I came back it’s been a jump as far as how we operate, and how we move day-to-day, we’re just on a high level right now and I think things are going well, I’m excited to see what it brings out, and I’m looking forward to it,” said Shumate.

Shumate ended the 2022-23 season by breaking the record for most rebounds in the Southland Conference Tournament, as he corralled 41rebounds in just three games, helping the Pokes to become the first eight seed in Southland Conference history to advance to the Semi-Finals. Entering the 2023-24 season, Shumate says that run gave him some confidence to begin the new year.

“I finished the season super strong, and you’re only as strong as your last couple of games, so I feel like it was a good couple of games to finish off on and it kind of just showed me, and showed everyone what I can do, and what I’m capable of, so my confidence is high,” said Shumate.

The perception around the McNeese Men’s Basketball program has completely shifted entering this season. Last year of McNeese’s 14 home games, just six games had an attendance of more than 2,000 fans, with just one of those six having more than 3,000 fans, when McNeese honored NBA Hall of Famer Joe Dumars by naming the court at the Legacy Center after him. This season the Legacy Center is expected to be much more full, something Shumate is looking forward to.

“I’m super excited, we saw glimpses of it last year, Northwestern for Joe Dumars night, that was pretty full, but this year is probably going to be a different atmosphere, everything has blown up, everyone is super excited, and we haven’t even played a game yet. I’m super excited, we want to get everyone out there, and we’re always appreciative when they do show up,” said Shumate.

Will Wade was also asked about the first 10 games of the season, and who will serve as the head coach while he serves his suspension, to which he announced that it will be Brandon Chambers, and Vernon Hamilton who will split the duties, alternating, taking five games each as head coach.

Chambers was a part of Wade’s staff at LSU, and was the assistant coach at Texas Southern last season, while Hamilton came to McNeese from Georgetown where he served as the Director of Player Development.

McNeese’s first 10 games:

Nov. 6 @ VCU
Nov. 10 vs. College of Biblical Studies
Nov. 13 vs. Champion Christian
Nov. 14 vs. LeTourneau
Nov. 18 @ Western Carolina
Nov. 21 vs. Texas State (La. Tech MTE)
Nov. 22 @ Louisiana Tech (La. Tech MTE)
Nov. 28 @ UAB
Dec. 2 vs. UT Martin
Dec. 5 vs. Mississippi University for Women

For the full press conference with Will Wade and Christian Shumate from Southland Conference Media Day, click here.

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