Men's basketball team opens regular season Wednesday night at home

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team will tip off the new season Wednesday night at Titan Field House.

The Titans will host Palm Beach State College at 7 p.m. in the season opener.

"This time of year is always pretty exciting because you are about to get started with the regular season, you have had all the work in the summer and fall and to have your first actual regular season game, and for it to be at home, is exciting," Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said. "For me especially, this team is such a connected team and a great group of individuals. They are such a joy to be around every day and I am excited to go to war with these guys."

Sophomores Matija Zuzic, Carlin Gelin and Owen Aquino are back from last season's 22-win team and will lead the team that has a different look this season.

"My 14^th year and we have had a lot of different looking teams, but this year's team is really skilled," Shulman said. "We wanted to have a lot of multi-positional, tall, versatile guys and really tough, hard-nosed guards. We are always going to be a tough team, a defensive team that is tough on the boards because that is who we are but in addition to those things, we will be a lot of pace and space.

"It will be exciting with this group."

Aquino started 26 of the 29 games last season and averaged 4.9 points and 6/8 rebounds as a freshman while Zuzic started 10 of his 21 games and averaged 8.1 points per game. Gelin played in 24 games, mostly off the bench and averaged three points and three rebounds.

The Titans have added 12 freshmen and are excited what the new group has brought to the court during the preseason.

"For a new guy, Luca (Colceag) is a Division I transfer and we don't usually have a lot of new guys who come in and are leaders but Luca has exceeded all expectations with his character, his work ethic, his leadership and his buy in," Shulman said. "We have a bunch of guys who have come in and showed they can contribute. Andrija (Bukumirovic), Carlos (Cortijo) and AJ (Walker) jump off the page as dogs."

The Titans will be home Wednesday night and then will host the Jim Grimes Classic on Friday and Saturday.

Friday night East Georgia State College faces the Florida State College at Jacksonville at 5 p.m. with the Titans playing Time to Ball Prep at 7 p.m. Then on Saturday, Florida State College at Jacksonville will play Time to Ball Prep at 2 p.m. with the Titans playing East Georgia State College at 4 p.m.

Admission to this week's games are free at Titan Field House and you can watch all of the games love online at the EFSC Titans YouTube page.