The biggest impact player who will be returning is senior wing Mickey Gibson who was one of the original portal players.  Gibson had played at the University of Kentucky but transferred after he got married.  Coach Rupp had said no married players would play at Kentucky and Coach Hartman heard about Gibson playing in an industrial league.  Hartman said “We were awfully lucky to get Mickey Gibson to come to school here.  He is a smart player with no limit on his range.”  A lefty who does like to fire from anywhere, Gibson set the tone for the Bulldogs in most of games he participated in.  The Bulldogs kind of came and went as he did in his first season in Asheville.  Gibson was only eligible for about 20 games but was without question the best offensive player on the team.  He can flat light it up from long range but ironically came off the bench as a super sub for most of the games even though he eventually led the team in scoring.  Gibson will start this year if he wants (he can kind of do anything he wants in Asheville right now) but no matter when he plays he will be chucking them up from the cheap seats of the Justice Center.

Junior Jim McIlhaney has been like having a part of Coach Hartman’s right arm at point guard. That is how well he understands the motion offense the coach has implemented and how well he runs it.  McIlhaney is a fierce competitor who can score and score often.  He is a tough minded leader who can mix it up but has a nice touch from the perimeter.  He is one heck of an on ball defender who, though he is undersized, can really lock down opponents on the perimeter.  He is not afraid of traversing in with the big boys.  His biggest weakness might be his score first mentality which gets in the way of getting the ball to the scorers but to be honest before Gibson arrived, McIlhaney was the offense in Asheville.   He will have plenty of competition this year as Biedenbach has made it a point of emphasis to bring in some guards for the future and he has about 5 incoming freshmen who are point guards.

 Junior center Rod Healy was the closest thing the Bulldogs have to a consistent big man.  Not exactly a Tim Duncan or a Brad Daugherty, Healy is a solid force in the middle.  He does not block a lot of shots but will score a little (very little) and is especially good on the boards.  Undersized for most of the D-1 Competition, he fits in nicely with most of the centers of this young conference. 

Junior Tony Bumphus is Mr. Consistent underneath.  Not big, he at least gives Hartman some muscle and can board and score some.  He is only one of two players to play in all 29 games as Coach Hartman rotated often to find the right collection of players in this team’s first year of D-1. Bumphus formed one half of the Bamford/Bumphus combo that had made this team fun to watch in their old NAIA days.  In that division these two were stars.  Of course there Bumphus dominated the paint and here he is an undersized overachiever who gets by on toughness. 

The other half of the combo, Bamford Jones gave the Bulldogs another player with scoring punch on the perimeter.  A good ballhandler with some quickness to boot, Jones is a consistent player for Coach Hartman.  He gets the job done and is truly a team player.    

Sophomore Milton Moore became the go to guy down low for the Bulldogs in just his first season last year.  He missed some games due to injury but down the stretch was huge.  Like the rest of the team he could work on rebounding (he is only 6’3 after all) but is a terrific scorer especially when he gets on a roll.  He gives the team a go to guy that it needs down low and they were much better when he was back to full speed.  Junior Frank Rhyne and sophomore Pat Jolley should push for playing time this year.  Rhyne a pure board man but Jolley is well-rounded all-around player and can block a shot.  He could start at some point at the post. 

The Bulldogs have a slew of young guards vying for minutes but this is the only position this team is deep at.  Senior Guy Batsel, Juniors Mike Grace and George Gilbert and sophomores Paul Allen and Van Wilkins all got significant playing time on the perimeter.  Batsel and Wilkins are scorers and split about 20 minutes between them last year.  They are streaky players but can throw it in the hoop.  Grace is a true point guard and Gilbert is a scoring point guard.  Gilbert started a few a games last year and has a good chance of starting this year.  He is too dynamic offensively not to play even with some defensive deficiencies.  Allen had a terrific first year and led the team in scoring twice and is consistent.  Coach Hartman went to four guard sets often last year and might again due to the lack of size inside.  Biedenbach has brought in a slew of big post players including the biggest one to ever play D-1 from Chicago.  That’s right incoming freshmen Kenny George is 7’7 370 but is a project though he obviously already eats up a truckload of space.  These new kids are not only big but good and should push this program to higher levels in the next few years but Hartman will make them wait their turn on the JV as he goes with his upperclassmen for most of the year. Or so is the plan in this attempt to build a long term program.  As you can see there are very few Juco kids on this roster and Biedenbach isn’t just here for good looks and recruiting.  He will be taking over the mantle from a legend but this is his team now.  If these kids he brought in are as good as advertised then who knows how far this team will go in this league?   After all they finally got a game with an ACC school and it just happens to be Biedenbach’s alma mater so this program will finally get their wish.  Now, let’s see how their Tar Heel brethren in Raleigh welcome them to D-1?