The Louisiana Monroe Warhawks pay a visit to the Fertitta Center in Houston on Monday to play the Houston Cougars in the first game of the college basketball regular season for both. Last season Louisiana-Monroe was 11-21 and Houston finished 33-4.
Louisiana Monroe finished last season 11-21 overall and was 7-11 in Sun Belt Conference action. The Warhawks have only two starters returning from last season, who are Tyreke Locure and Jamari Blackmon. Last season Locure was the leading scorer for Louisiana-Monroe with an average of 14.4 points per game and was second in assists with an average of 2.7 per contest. Jamari Blackmon was the second leading scorer for the Warhawks last season with an average of 13.0 points per game and was the team leader in assists with an average of 3.1 per game
Louisiana-Monroe will have several experienced reserves returning from last season including Nika Metskhvarishvili, Jacob Wilson and Jalen Bolden. These three will need to have very big seasons to help out the only two returning starters Locure and Blackmon if the Warhawks hope to be competitive. Louisiana-Monroe also added transfers Makai Willis from Fairfield and AD Diedhiou from UAB.