'Hound men bring back top scorers

Fort Scott Community College's men's basketball team improved its record by nine games last season under head coach John Burns. The last time the Greyhounds had gotten so much better so quickly was when Andy Arbietman won 13 more games in 1992-93 (19-11) than his predecessor William Ivey did the year before (6-24).

Fort Scott finished 16-14 in 2005-06, its first winning season since 1999-2000, when the Greyhounds were 19-12 under Chris Beard. They lost in the first round of the Region VI Tournament to Butler.

Despite their rate of improvement and the fact that they return two of the top 10 scorers in the Jayhawk Conference, conference coaches picked them to finish in sixth place in the Eastern Division this season. Last season, FSCC was 10-8 in the East and tied for fourth with Cowley and Johnson County.

The Greyhounds start the 2006-07 season Friday at Hutchinson where they will take on Des Moines Area, Iowa, in the Hutchinson Classic. Saturday, Fort Scott will play Hamilton College.

Burns, 24-36 in his two seasons, has five players who started at least part time returning. The leader of that group is Eastern Division Honorable Mention honoree Bateko Francisco (6' 0", Soph., Paris, France) at guard. He was the conference's sixth-leading scorer last season at 17.9 points per game. He also averaged 2.2 steals per game, eighth in the conference, and was eighth in three-pointers made per game.

Terrell Turner (5' 10", Soph., Columbia, Mo.) also returns as a guard. He was the ninth-leading scorer in the conference at 15.7 points a game. He also shot over 80 percent from the free-throw line and was fifth in the conference in three-pointers made per game.

Forward D'Mario Newton (6' 1", Soph., Wichita) brings back 15.5 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. Also back are Guards Zach Freeman (6' 1, Soph., Wichita) and A.J. Rhea (6' 1", Soph., Kearney, Mo.). Freeman averaged 6.8 points and 3.1 rebounds last season. Rhea averaged 4.8 points and four rebounds.

Last season, the Greyhounds had only player over 6' 4" who played significant minutes (Abe Mathok, who has graduated). They'll be slightly taller this season with the additions of Kyle Cooper (6' 4", Fr., West Plains, Mo.), Arsenio Williams (6' 4", Fr., Chicago) and Chris Clausen (6' 5", Fr., Gawler, Australia).

Cooper was the Greyhounds' prize recruit and one of the best players in the state of Missouri last season. He's listed as a wing on the roster and is expected to add to the outside shooting ability the Greyhounds already possess. Williams and Clausen are listed as forwards and, hopefully, will be able to give Fort Scott a physical presence inside.

Also on the roster are freshmen Branden Kincade (6' 2", Wichita), Kolby Hopkins (6' 0", Wichita) and Rodney Spillman (6' 0", Linwood, Kan.). Kincade and Spillman are wings while Hopkins is a guard.

You will see less of the Greyhounds at home during the first semester of this season as compared to last year. There are only three home games before January and those come in a stretch of four days. Fort Scott will play the William Jewell junior varsity on November 17 and the Mid-American Nazarene JV the next day in the McDonald's Classic at Arnold Arena. The following Monday, FSCC will host the Ottawa JV. After that, they won't be home again until conference play starts January 3 against Kansas City Kansas. Last year, FSCC played seven first-semester home games, six of them against four-year school JV teams.

The Hutchinson Classic replaces a couple of those home games. The Greyhounds go to Iowa again to play in the Indian Hills Classic November 9-11, making their second consecutive appearance there.

NOTES -- As was the case last year, weeknight home games will begin at 7 p.m. while Saturday games tip off at 4. If a women's game is held the same night, they start two hours prior to the men....