KINGSVILLE, Texas – With the start of a new season comes a new set of challenges for the Texas A&M-Kingsville men's basketball team, including trying to navigate their way through an expanded Lone Star Conference. Fortunately for the Javelinas and coach Johnny Estelle, the roster for 2019-20 season is one filled with student-athletes who've become used to taking on tasks like these and know what it will take to accomplish the goals this squad has set for itself.
The journey to where the Javelinas want to go starts with two games at home inside the Steinke Physical Education Center. On Friday, TAMUK will pop the cork on the new campaign at 7 p.m. against the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers at the SPEC. One day later, it will be the Chadron State Eagles who will be in Kingsville to clash with the Javelinas in another game with a 7 p.m. tip-off time.
Almost two-thirds of TAMUK's roster is made up of upperclassmen, including a half-dozen seniors. The basketball careers of these student-athletes have brought them to Kingsville from places like El Reno, Oklahoma, Liberal, Kansas and Durham, North Carolina. Their experiences include playing in the National Junior College Athletic Association Tournament, the Lone Star Conference Tournament and the Division I NCAA Tournament. The mission for Estelle, in his sixth season leading the program, is to mold this group into a championship team.
Estelle brought back 11 players from his 2018-19 team and added one of last year's seniors, Alex Mills, to his coaching staff. The returners include seniors Rashon Thomas (Houston, Texas) and Chauncey Thomas (Plano, Texas), both of whom were constants in the starting lineup a year ago and figure to again take on prominent roles.
Rashon Thomas will look to recapture the shooting touch he showed as a junior, when he led the Javelinas in made three-pointers and was also the squad's best shooter from the free throw line at 84.7 percent. He finished the season by canning 33 of his last 34 from the charity stripe, including his final 19-in-a-row. Chauncey Thomas climbed to the top of the team's leaderboard in assists with 78. He passed out a season-high seven to go with 10 points in TAMUK's upset of No. 8 West Texas A&M on Jan. 10th.
Also back in the Blue and Gold is one of the team's most versatile players, senior John Mouton (Missouri City, Texas). The 2018-19 season ended with Mouton in the Javelinas' top three in scoring, rebounding, steals, made baskets and made threes. He logged a double-double in his team's upset of WT and put up a season-high 22 points against Cameron in the penultimate game of the regular season.
Among the new faces joining Thomas, Thomas and Mouton at the guard spots are senior John Guerra (Melville, N.Y.) and junior Tre Flowers (Bryan, Texas), two student-athletes who spent last year guiding their programs to the postseason. Flowers averaged better than 11 points per game and was an all-conference performer for the Seward College Saints, who he helped lead to a Region VI Championship in 2018-19. Flowers started his time with the Javelinas by scoring 24 against the Aggies in College Station.
Guerra left North Carolina Central University as the only player in school history to be a member of three straight conference championship teams. Guerra was a three year captain for the Eagles who played in 57 games, including his team's 2018 NCAA Tournament matchup against Texas Southern.
In the paint, the Hogs said goodbye their all-time leader in blocked shots, Robert Stevenson, and only 39 percent of the team's rejections from a year ago came from players on this year's roster. Sophomore Will Chayer (Corpus Christi, Texas) and senior Daniel Severo (Osasco, Brazil) can both be expected to see an increase in playing time. Chayer started his team's final 17 games a season ago and finished with the second-best shooting percentage on the roster. Severo ended the season strong with a 10-point, five-rebound day against Angelo State in the Lone Star Conference Tournament. The group of forwards that will share time with Chayer and Severo include senior Kyren Block (San Antonio, Texas), juniors Jamell Bradley (Converse, Texas) and Dayante McClellan (Austin, Texas) and redshirt freshman Wellington Stovall (Houston, Texas).
One of the challenges for the Javelinas in the 2019-20 season will be trying to battle their way through a conference that has expanded from 10 teams to 18. The new group of teams that now count themselves among TAMUK's LSC opponents include three programs coming off appearances at South Central Regionals, including the region's runner-up, St. Edward's. The Javs will not only be competing in an expanded conference, but also in one of three newly formed divisions. SEU and two other competitors in the 2019 regional tournament, Tarleton and Dallas Baptist, are among the teams the Javelinas will be battling with for the top spot in their division. These divisional foes will be the only LSC teams TAMUK will play twice in 2019-20.
The new alignment also brings with it a new format for the conference tournament. The top four seeds will get a bye while seeds five through 12 will battle for a spot in the second round and a ticket to Frisco, Texas, where the 2020 LSC Tournament Championship will be decided.
To keep up with the Javelina men's basketball program all season long, follow at @JavelinaMBB and @JavelinaSports on Twitter and Instagram, like Javelina Men's Basketball on Facebook and subscribe to the Javelina Athletics Youtube Channel. Watch you Javelinas live today on the Javelina Sports Network sponsored by Mendoza's Pharmacy.
