Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman says team has higher ceiling

Mercer's 6-1 start is getting plenty of notice, but head coach Bob Hoffman thinks there is much more for the Bears to accomplish.

Mercer, coming off a 3-0 showing and a tournament title in the Challenge in Musicy City, hosts Hiwassee and Alcorn State this week before heading out on a difficult road trip (Auburn, Arkansas, Ohio State and Kennesaw State). The game with Hiwassee is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, while the game with Alcorn State tips at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The Bears were ranked 24th in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll, which ranks the teams in the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Great West, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt and West Coast.

"You'd love to add to what you've already done," Hoffman said of the possibility of starting 8-1 swith two wins this week. "And it would be a great blessing to get that to transpire in the next few days. Really, the most important thing is focusing on getting better, and that's what we're doing in a lot of our individual workouts. Our assistant coaches are doing a tremendous job with that, and our players want to get better.

"I think the message is, 'We haven't arrived. We've just begun.' We think the ceiling on this team is much higher than where we're at, and every day we're trying to get better. That's what the message for the week is."

Mercer plays Hiwassee (4-6) for the first time, and the Tigers have played two other Southern Conference teams this season, losing to Western Carolina and Chattanooga. The Bears are off to their best start since the 1984-85 team started 7-1, and they responded to their only loss -- at Davidson -- with wins over Tulane (71-61), Appalachian State (71-70) and Western Michigan (68-65) in Nashville.

Mercer is holding its opponents to a Southern Conference-leading 64.6 points per game.

"We're playing better defense, and we're starting to come together a little bit on the defensive end," said senior point guard Phillip Leonard, who is averaging 13.7 points, 5.4 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game. "But we can still get a lot better there. We're communicating a little bit more, but we can still be better there, as well."

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman says team has higher ceiling ."