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JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team will hit the floor for the first time in 2010-11 on Thursday, when the Gamecocks host West Georgia in a 7 p.m. exhibition game at Pete Mathews Coliseum. Admission is free.

The Gamecocks and Wolves will tangle in their lone preseason game in their final preparations for the upcoming season, which starts for JSU on Nov. 13. The former Gulf South Conference rivals met 47 times on the hardwood in their Division II days, with JSU holding a 37-10 advantage in those meetings. The Gamecocks have faced them several times in exhibition games since making the move to Division I in 1995.

On Thursday, the Gamecocks will unveil their new roster that features an experienced group of veterans that will have to mesh with 10 newcomers. Headlining head coach James Green's returning class are a pair of fourth-year seniors in Nick Murphy and Jeremy Bynum.

Murphy, a preseason All-Ohio valley Conference player from Bronx, N.Y., has already placed his name in the school's record books and looks to climb further in his final season at JSU. The 6-foot-4 forward is currently the school's second-leading scorer in its Division I era with 1,065, just 117 away from Walker Russell's Div. I record of 1,182 career points, and needs just 42 rebounds to set the Div. I mark in that category. He is also the team's leading returning scorer and rebounder from a year ago.

Bynum, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Oxford, Ala., also has his name in the Gamecock record books. He holds the Div. I record for 3-pointers in a career and 3-pointers in a game, while he is 152 points away from becoming the 21st member of the school's 1,000 points club. Bynum ranked 21st in the OVC in scoring last season with 10.5 points per game, while his 1.9 3-pointers made per game were ninth in the league.

Also back is junior forward Stephen Hall, who was one of the top rebounders in the league a year ago. A native of Birmingham, Hall started 20 games for the Gamecocks as a sophomore in 2009-10 and was fourth in scoring and rebounding.

JSU mixes a group of six freshmen and four junior college transfers into the mix this season. Leading the transfers is junior B.J. Miller a guard form Georgia Perimeter College that sat out the 2009-10 season with the Gamecocks. Also in are forwards Leventrice Gray (Gadsden State CC), DeAndre' Bynum (Southwest Tennessee CC) and Latiq Agard (Seward County CC) fom the junior college ranks.

Guards Brice Jenkins and Frankie Bougher highlight the JSU freshman on the perimeter, as well as Brian Williams, a point guard from Lawrenceville, Ga. Jenkins is a native of Palm Beach, Fla., while Bougher comes to Jax State from Christian Brothers High School in Memphis. Hattiesburg, Miss., native Nick Cook will lend a hand in the post for the Gamecocks as a freshman.

Season tickets for the 2010-11 season are on sale now and start at just $60. They can be purchased at the JSU Ticket Office in Kennamer Hall or by phone at 1-877-JSU-TIXX or (256) 782-TIXX.