Incarnate Word Our Lady of the Lake

Coach: Carson Cunningham (16-43 in two seasons).

Last year:

Outlook:

Belt Player of the Year and Texas State’s alltime career scoring leader. Pearson averaged 19.4 points per game last season. But the Bobcats return second-leading scorer Mason Harrell (8.9 points per game) and a group of experienced players including Alonzo Sule (8.1 points, 4.5 rebounds), Isiah Small (8.0 points, 6.5 rebounds), Caleb Asberry (6.7 points) and Marlin Davis (5.8 points, 3.9 assists). Texas State feels it has the tools to exceed expectations after being picked to finish fifth in the Sun Belt’s six-team West Division.

Player to watch: Harrell averaged 33.8 points per game as a senior at Carl Albert High in Oklahoma, and the 5-foot-9 junior guard will be called on to carry a greater scoring load in Pearson’s absence.

Coach: Chris Dial (17-37 in two seasons).

Last year: 10-18, 6-12; seventh in Red River Athletic Conference and did not qualify for conference tournament

Outlook: OLLU already has been forced to cancel or postpone five games this season because of COVID-19 complications, but the Saints still plan to face six Division I teams across November and December before picking up Red River Athletic Conference play in January. The Saints took an incremental step forward last year in Dial’s second season but are a long way from returning to the heights of the nine straight winning campaigns the program posted before his arrival. The team enters this year needing to replace its two leading scorers from last season in Michael Saladin (15.9 points per game) and Jared Embry (14.4). Ruben Monzon returns in the frontcourt after averaging 13.1 points and a team-leading 7.8 rebounds per game last year. Starting point guard Darin Minniefield also will reprise his role after posting 8.8 points and a team-leading 4.2 assists per game.

Player to watch: Monzon was OLLU’s most reliable piece last year, starting a team-high 27 games and leading the team with 795 total minutes — more than 100 ahead of any other player. With much of the production from last year’s team not returning, Monzon likely will be leaned on even more heavily this season.

Key games: Nov. 29 at UIW; Dec. 12 at Texas State; Dec. 20 at UTSA; Jan. 9 vs. Wiley; Jan. 28 vs. LSU-Shreveport