The Pioneer Frontier Magazine

The Men’s basketball team at Tusculum College had made history already in the 2009-2010 campaign before even tip-off the season.  The Pioneers are ranked 13^th in the Basketball Times Preseason Poll and this is their top ranking in school history.  With the ranking came a lot of pressure, but the Pioneers had great confidence because of their returning cast.

Kyle Moore is one of the four returning starters from last year’s squad.  The South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year from last season is one of the main reasons that Tusculum has received the ranking it has.  His league leading 21.1 points per game along with the recording setting 101 three point field goals made and 203 free throws made can attribute to the hype that is surrounding the Pioneers but there is more to the team than just Moore.  “It’s a great accomplishment to receive the ranking that we got but it means nothing if we don’t produce wins on the court” he told the Frontier.

Tusculum has three other seniors on the team that have afforded the Pioneers some much needed experience.  The first of the three that has the most experience the previous season is Josh Bennett, who averaged 10.1 points per game and led the team in rebounding with 7.2 rebounds per game as well as leading the team in shooting percentage by hitting 52 percent of his shots and getting 1.1 blocks per game.  The other two seniors are Wes Taylor and Jimmy Boone who both had considerable roles for the Pioneers last year.  Taylor had to sit out the first two months of last season due to injury which caused him to miss considerable playing time and forced him to play catch up, averaging 3.8 points per game and 3.2 rebounds per game.  Jimmy Boone is the other senior on the team and is going to see much more playing time this season.  Last year he averaged 6.1 points per game and 1.6 assists per game, some high notes for Boone last year was scoring a career high 24 points against Mt. Olive shooting 9-for-15 from the field including 6-of-9 from three-point range.

Another key component to this year’s team has come from Junior forward Rob Troutman.  He looks to continue the family trend that his brother Ryan left behind after last year.  Troutman averaged 9.4 points per game and 4.5 rebounds per game last season and is looking too improve on that.

The Pioneers coach Jim Boone is now in his fifth season with the program and finally has all the pieces put together to make another run at the SAC title this year.  Boone has 381 wins entering this season.  “Getting Coach Boone his 400^th win this year would mean so much to this team because they want to be part of history and that if they were to get him his 400^th win that it would mean a successful year for everyone” Moore told the Frontier after last year’s 20 win season.

Coach Boone does not seem to worry about the milestone.  “It is really not that big of deal regarding the 400 wins, and I mean that in all sincerity – it’s of much so much greater importance to me that we are able to continue to help this team to grow, to improve, and to mature as a team on a daily basis so that we can reach our full potential.  To see this team reach its potential will mean so much more to me than an arbitrary number of wins”

So far this season the Pioneers have a 10-7 record, which has not lived up to the the team’s hopeful expectations.  One positive is that they are currently on a four game winning streak, with two of those wins coming on the road to conference rivals Newberry and Wingate.  After Monday night’s win against Lenoir-Rhyne, the Pioneers have to travel to Lincoln Memorial and Catawba.  Kyle Moore leads the Pioneers in points per game with 23.2 and behind him is Rob Troutman with 9.4.