As the only Division I men’s basketball program to have competed in the NJCAA National Tournament each of the last four seasons, the East Mississippi Community College Lions have garnered a No. 11 preseason ranking in the NJCAA Top 25 national poll released Tuesday by the national office headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo.

    Guided by seventh-year head men’s basketball coach Mark White, the EMCC Lions have claimed four consecutive NJCAA Region 23 championships as well as four straight MACJC North Division regular-season titles en route to making successive trips (2010-11-12-13) to the NJCAA Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan.  A year ago, the 20-8 Lions were 10-2 within the division before dropping an overtime decision to Mississippi Gulf Coast in the MACJC State Tournament and then falling to perennial NJCAA power Howard College (TX) during the national tournament.

    “Being nationally ranked in the preseason for the fourth year in a row gives EMCC a tremendous amount of pride for our school and validates what we’ve been striving to do with our program,” White noted.  “At the same time, we don’t take the recognition lightly because we use it as extra motivation all season long to make our players understand that the respect we’ve earned through the years comes with hard work and dedication.”      

    White, who enters the upcoming campaign with a 123-51 career record at EMCC, returns six lettermen, including three starters, from last year’s squad.  Sophomore guard Jacolby Mobley hails as the team’s leading returning scorer at 13.6 points per contest as a 16-game starter a year ago.  The former Starkville High School product also averaged 2.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals an outing along with ranking second on the club with 46 made 3-pointers as a freshman.

    Also returning for the Lions are 11-game starters Mack Foster and Nick Giles, who averaged 7.4 and 4.6 points per game, respectively, last season.  Foster, from West Bolivar High School, connected on 30 three-point shots as a collegiate rookie, while Giles, a Kemper County High School product, averaged a team-leading 5.3 assists per contest.

    Expected to provide an immediate impact on this year’s EMCC club will be a trio of transfers from four-year schools.  Headlining that group will be 2011-12 McDonald’s All-American Devonta Pollard, who returns to his old stomping ground after the former Kemper County High School phenom spent his freshman season playing for the University of Alabama.

    Also looking to establish instant credibility among the Mississippi junior college ranks will be former Jackson Clarion-Ledger “Dandy Dozen” performer Avery Woodson.  The former Wayne County High School standout has returned to his home state after transferring from Southeastern Louisiana University.  In addition, fellow guard Antonio Finley, from Meridian High School, comes aboard by way of Tougaloo College.                            

    The other returning players for the 2013-14 Lions are forwards Adrian Edwards (Biloxi HS) and Justin Kinsey (Yazoo City HS) along with guard Brandon Moss (Northeast Lauderdale HS).

    Other talented newcomers joining this year’s EMCC men’s hoops contingent include Davon “Chuck” Ester (Biloxi HS), Dennis “D.J.” Miles (Meridian HS), Jason Tate (New Hope HS) and Reggie Brown (Greenville-St. Joseph).  

Joined on this year’s EMCC men’s hoops coaching staff by first-year assistants Shelby Lindley and Drew Bernd, Coach White’s Lions are set to make their 2013-14 basketball season debut on Thursday, Nov. 7 at Meridian Community College.  The East Mississippi basketball teams will then collectively tip off their home slate the following Thursday (Nov. 14) by playing host to East Central Community College on the Scooba campus.