It's the moment we have all been waiting for , basketball season is here and all eyes are on 1st year head Coach at Temple Brac Brady.

Brac Brady, new to the area from Maine, will direct his first Temple men's game against Don Rekoske's ninth set of Lions, who will host Hiwassee on Monday night. And Brady has been pleased with his bunch.

"Coming into this job, I felt like maybe I'd have to work to get them to work hard every day and I'd have a selling job to get them to buy into my system," he said this week, "but it's been just the opposite. The guys have given great effort on a daily basis and have totally bought into the scheme."

Brady is counting on 6-foot-1 senior Jarrett Smith to "set the tone as our lead guard, and I've really enjoyed coaching him so far. He plays hard all the time."

Weedlens Beauvil, a sophomore returner from last year's 15-16 team, will be at the other guard and must shoot well, Brady noted, especially since "shooting might become our Achilles' heel," and the coach is counting on leadership also from seniors such as wings Joe Quinn and Jordan Brown. The 7-2 senior John Riek, who began his collegiate career at Mississippi State, doesn't fit smoothly into the Crusaders' preferred "get up and down" offense and pressure defense but will provide an intimidating presence at times.

Junior transfers John Jones and Hampton Mack, the latter following Brady from Maine-Machias, are capable posts at 6-9 and 6-6, and 6-8 Rashaud Bell from the Louisiana-Monroe football program should provide effective minutes as the season progresses. Junior point guard Corey Sanders from Brainerd will help when he gets over an injury, and Dorian Smith is another potential upperclass contributor, while the top freshmen appear to be point guard P.J. Whittaker from Smyrna (Tenn.) High School and 6-2 guard Travaris Clarke from Chicago.