North Texas travels to Los Angeles to play in the Loyola-Marymount DoubleTree Los Angeles West Side Centennial Classic starting Friday.

North Texas will play La Sierra on Friday with tip-off at 2 P.M. On Saturday they will be going against Columbia with a 5 P.M. tip-off and finishing off with host LMU on Sunday with a 1:30 tip-off. 

Back to back to back games are a concern for North Texas since they really do not have enough time to prepare for the next opponent. So they have to rely on what they do best with the basketball and execute their plays.

Here is a quick look at the first two opponents.

La Sierra is a Seventh-day Adventist university with over 2,000 students and play in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic (NAIA) Division.  They play in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference winning the title last year. They have nine returning starters from last year’s championship team. There are three starting seniors on the team DePaul Williams, F, 6-2, 210, Aaron Snyder, G, 5-10, 150 and Joshua Zonker, F, 6-4, 190. There are three more seniors with game experience returning. The big guy in the middle is Connor Madden, Sr., 6-10, 235.  

The Golden Eagles have a 0-5 record this season. Per their website, the North Texas-LSU game will be on the internet at this address Golden Eagle Video

Columbia, out of the Ivy League, is off to a tough start this season with a 2-4 record.  Their main scorer is Brian Barbour, G, Jr., 6-1, 175 who is putting in 14.8 points a game. Noruwa Agho, G, Sr., 6-3, 220 was putting in 14 points a game in the two games he played before being injured. He is 13^th on the Columbia All-Time scoring list and is a huge loss for the program. The next six players are scoring five to six points each. Chris Crockett, G, Sr., 5-10, 190 is their three point shooter hitting 10 of 31 shots with Barbour close behind hitting 8 of 31. They have a great rookie in Alex Rosenberg, F, Fr., 6-7, 215 who has been the Ivy League Player of the Week this season.

North Texas fans need to know this team relies on the outside perimeter shooting. So far this season they have tried 140 three point attempts hitting 48 of them. Opponents have tried 81 from beyond the arc.

So far this season they are a pretty good rebounding team getting 38.5 total rebounds per game. Mark Cisco, C, Jr., 6-9, 245 leads the team in rebounds grabbing 5.8 in six games. However, John Daniels, F, Jr., 6-8, 220 has cleared the glass to the tune of 7.3 per game but he has only been in four games. Blaise Staab, F, Sr., 6-5, 215 is third in rebounds with 5 a game.  They are better on defensive rebounds grabbing a total of 150 or 25 per game while getting 81 total offensive rebounds or 13.5 per game.

Last year they were 16-13 and five seniors return from the team. This gives the edge to Columbia in experience.