As the Penn State Altoona men's basketball team prepares to embark on its 2023-24 regular season schedule, expectations around the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference are high for the Lions. The team reached the conference championship game last season and brings back a large number of players from its 2022-23 roster. In this year's edition of the AMCC preseason coaches' poll, Penn State Altoona was voted first place, as league coaches predicted that the team will finish atop the standings by season's end.

Penn State Altoona head coach David McGreal, who enters his seventh season at the helm of the program, is grateful that his team is held in high regard around the conference coming into this season. But he knows that his squad's ranking in the preseason poll does not guarantee success, and that his team will have to put in the hard work to fulfill expectations.

"Coming into the season after back-to-back successful campaigns in AMCC regular season play, we feel very confident that we are one of the teams to beat going into the season. But with the loss of some returners, we are still in a pattern of learning and seeing how good we possibly can be," McGreal explained. "We appreciate the recognition given to us by the coaches in the AMCC, and that is based on our recent success of going 25-5 in AMCC regular season games the last two years. I can see why we were given that preseason nod, however, we have a long way to go to reach our ultimate goal of being the top team at the end of the season."

Leading Penn State Altoona's returners are senior forwards Mason Bush (Pittsburgh, PA/Seneca Valley) and Jarrett Gardner (Live Oak, FL/Suwanee), junior forward Dwayne Jones (Philadelphia, PA/Greater Johnstown), and junior guards Justin Sheetz (Eldersburg, MD/Liberty) and Jahmar White (Yigo, Guam/St. Paul Christian School).

Bush was a third-team All-AMCC pick last season, during which he was sixth in the conference in three-pointers made (51) and three-point field goal percentage (40.5) while being 19th in points per game (11.2). Jones was the conference's Defensive Player of the Year, helped by his ranking second in the AMCC in blocks (48) and blocks per game (1.8).

Meanwhile, Gardner averaged 2.9 points per game and 2.3 rebounds per game last year while bringing a presence to the paint for the Lions. Sheetz found success from beyond the arc, going 18-for-39 from three-point range and averaging 3.2 points per game. White provided a spark for the team during the second half of the season, during which he scored 6.8 points per game.

"Mason, Dwayne, and Jahmar are really solid, all-conference level players, and we expect their roles to increase offensively, and more importantly, defensively. Mason and Dwayne will bring more production on the rebounding side of things, and Jahmar has shown he can provide instant offense and put up big numbers in a limited minutes role, which will expand once he returns from his Guam national team commitment in the FIBA world cup qualifiers," said McGreal. "We are also looking for a big step up in production from Justin, who shot 46 percent from three last year in his minutes, and we will expect bigger things from him. We also expect that Jarrett will anchor the middle in his minutes on the court."

McGreal also highlights two other returners, senior guard Chris Jarosz (Toronto, ON/Andrews Osborne Academy) and junior guard Kevin Woodland, Jr. (Great Mills, MD/Great Mills).

"Chris will provide senior leadership and timely three-point shooting in his role," McGreal noted. "And after battling back from severe injury, we are excited to see what Kevin can bring to the floor this season."

Penn State Altoona also welcomes eight players to its roster who will be entering their first seasons with the team: junior guard Lamont Powell, Jr. (Trappe, MD/Easton), sophomore guard Kaden Claar (Portage, PA/Portage), freshmen guards Abiah Charles (Orlando, FL/Wekiva), Aidan Goodwin (Norwalk, OH/Monroeville), Mason Kargo (Portage, PA/Portage), and Elliot Johansson (Stockholm, Sweden/Tibble Gymnasium), freshman forward Michael Baskerville (Damascus, MD/Damascus), and freshman guard/forward Braelen Cage (Lorton, VA/Hayfield Secondary).

"We have a lot of new faces who are going to play big minutes alongside the returners. The blending of the newcomers will include two transfers. Lamont is a point guard from Garrett and Chesapeake Community Colleges, both of which went to the NJCAA national tournaments, and we expect big things from him. Kaden is a transfer from Juniata and will get more minutes and opportunities here in a system that he will be very successful in," said McGreal. "Freshmen such as Baskerville, Cage, Johansson, Charles, Kargo, and Goodwin will provide immediate depth and youthful talent to the roster this season."

Penn State Altoona men's basketball opens its season on the road this Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11, competing in the Ron Linhart Memorial Tournament at Heidelberg University. The Lions start off against Adrian College on Friday, then will take on either Bluffton University or Heidelberg on Saturday.

Other non-conference games in November for the Lions are road matchups with Juniata College (Tuesday, November 14), Albion College (Saturday, November 18), and the University of Olivet (Sunday, November 19). Penn State Altoona also has two non-conference tilts in December, hosting York College (Pa.) on Wednesday, December 20 and Oberlin College on Saturday, December 30.

Penn State Altoona starts AMCC play on the road Wednesday, November 29 against Pitt-Greensburg, the first of the Lions' 18-game league schedule.

"We understand that our non-conference schedule is extremely tough and difficult. We do this on purpose to gauge where we are, in terms of the regional picture, but also to prepare ourselves for the rigors of the conference schedule, which starts even earlier this year," said McGreal. "Once again, we're excited about the levels that the program has reached. But we're still in search of the ultimate goal of representing the AMCC in the NCAA tournament. This year, there are #NoExcuses."