Hoffman believes Mercer’s experience will pay off this season

The Mercer men’s basketball team has plenty of experience entering this season.

Head coach Bob Hoffman believes that will be a big bonus for the Bears, who opened practice Friday morning. Mercer opens its season Nov. 12 against Toccoa Falls.

“The experience that they’ve had and played through, the many games that all these guys have been a part of, including our trip this summer, I think it just puts them in a really good mindset going into the year of understanding what it’s going to take for us to be the championship level team that we’d love to be,” said Hoffman, who is entering his 10th season with the program.

Mercer’s roster includes six seniors: Jordan Strawberry, Stephon Jelks, Demetre Rivers, Desmond Ringer, Ria’n Holland and Rashad Lewis. The junior class is made up of Ryan Johnson, Cory Kilby and Jaylen Stowe.

Ethan Stair is also back after redshirting last year with an injury. He will be a sophomore.

“It’s not a one-man team or a one-man band. It’s a bunch of different elements of this team, I think, that could be very special,” Hoffman said. “I think that’s what’ll make us hard to guard, and if we can do that — and then if we can guard — we could do really, really good things this year.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 10:09 AM with the headline "Hoffman believes Mercer’s experience will pay off this season."