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Young Saint Martin's cast opens vs. Eastern

Saints: Freshmen, sophomores dot roster of Keith Cooper's 'very inexperienced' team

GAIL WOOD; The Olympian | • Published October 30, 2009

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Like a car mechanic with his head under the hood, Keith Cooper will be fine-tuning Sunday when his Saint Martin's team plays at Eastern Washington in an exhibition men's basketball game to tip off its season.

The Saints are young. Seven of Cooper’s 12 players are freshmen or sophomores.

“I love their attitude and work ethic,” said Cooper, who is beginning his seventh year as coach of the Saints. “But we’re a very inexperienced team. When you lose four seniors that were all starters, it’s tough.”

Meanwhile, Eastern Washington returns four starters and is expected to contend for the Big Sky title.

“This is a good chance for our young guys to get their feet wet,” Cooper said. “Hopefully, we’ll give Eastern a good game.”

SMU forward Blake Poole, who averaged 15.1 points and 10.5 rebounds last season as a sophomore, is the Saints’ lone returning starter. At point guard, freshman Brady Bomber replaces Jake Linton, a three-time first-team all-conference pick.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to be better,” Cooper said about Sunday’s exhibition. “Whether we win or whether we lose by 20, we’re going to be a better team. That’s the goal.”

Seniors Jared Howard and Dane Henze came off the bench last year and give Cooper some experience up front. Howard, an agile 6-foot-6 forward, is expected to pick up more of the scoring this season after averaging 5.8 points last season.

“Jared Howard will be a much better scorer, more explosive on offense,” Cooper said. “Everyone we lost we already had their replacements in the program last year.”

Howard replaces Tyler Nixon at forward, Jeremy Green replaces Bill Richardson at forward, Galen Squires replaces Justin Alexander at guard, and Bomber replaces Linton at point guard.

After finishing 22-8 last season and just missing the regional playoffs, the Saints are picked to finish next to last in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, according to a preseason poll of conference coaches.

“Come Sunday afternoon, we’ll know where we’re at,” Cooper said. “It’ll be either good or bad. But at least we’ll be able to build from that.”

After EWU, Saint Martin’s plays an exhibition at Idaho on Nov. 6 and will host The Evergreen State College on Nov. 10.

Because his team is so young, Cooper turned down an offer to play the University of Washington in an exhibition game this season.

“We took a rain check,” Cooper said.

Cooper doesn’t use exhibition games as an opportunity to experiment with lineups.

“We don’t approach the exhibition games any different than regular season,” Cooper said. “Other than the fact that the score doesn’t matter as much.”