Men’s Basketball officially start season

The men’s basketball team kicked off the 2022-23 season on Sept. 28, with a media session and their first official practice with their new-looking squad.  

In the media session, veteran Head Coach Cliff Ellis, who currently ranks tenth all time in the number of Division I basketball wins, spoke about redshirt junior Essam Mostafa and the other returning players and the impact they will have this year as leaders. 

“With three players back, Essam, Will and Josh are going to have to be our leaders. They need to be our leaders,” Ellis said. “And I don’t think there’s any doubt, or any of these players, they don’t question Essam. They have a lot of respect for him and Will because they’ve proven it.” 

Mostafa spoke on how Will Likayi and himself have developed good chemistry throughout their time at Coastal and touched on his chemistry with newcomer Jimmy Nichols.  

“Me and Will, I think we have very good chemistry. Because he plays hard, I play hard, he goes and catches the board all the time, we kind of know how to move with each other,” Mostfa said. “Now me and Jimmy need to get used to each other, I think we’re in very good shape now.” 

As a Conway native, Nichols expressed his excitement on playing in his hometown in front of family and friends. 

“It’s going to be a lot of fun, just thinking back to high school,” Nichols said. “I’m just ready to play in front of people.”  

The team opens their season on Nov. 7 in the HTC Center to take on St. Mary’s College of Maryland.