MOBILE, Ala. – The 2016-17 University of South Alabama men's basketball season got underway Wednesday with the first practice of the year.

The Jaguars and head coach Matthew Graves held the workout at the Mitchell Center.

"I'm extremely excited to get everyone out there moving in the right direction," Graves said. "We have 16 healthy bodies that our strength and conditioning coach Ross Jirgl has done a tremendous job of getting ready. I'm looking forward to starting the journey."

"It will be a pretty typical practice for the beginning of the year. I want to establish some basic concepts that we'll continue to reinforce that we think will lead to winning a lot of games as we move throughout the season."

The Jaguars return eight letterwinners, including a group of four seniors: Ken Williams (Houston, Texas), Georgi Boyanov (Lovech, Bulgaria), Nick Stover (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Don MuepoKelly (Fontana, Calif.). Williams is the team's top returning scorer at 15.5 ppg and was a third-team all-Sun Belt Conference performer.

"The seniors will be very familiar with how we practice – the drills, the transitions – so they need to lead by example," Graves said. "We'd like to see them take that next step into coaching and mentoring the younger guys on our roster."

The four seniors will help lead a group of three true freshmen that will be making their debut this season, along with three others that sat out last year as redshirts.

"I expect the guys are going to be anxious. We have an interesting mix of veteran guys with a lot of new faces. We have six freshman and three redshirted last year that are able to put on a uniform. There will be some anxious moments but I expect guys to compete and play really hard today."

The season opens Nov. 4 with an exhibition against Mobile, before the regular-season begins Nov. 11 at UNLV.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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