HARROGATE, Tenn. – On the heels of winning its eighth South Atlantic Conference regular season championship and fifth SAC Tournament title, the Lincoln Memorial University men's basketball team is primed for another year among the nation's elite. The Railsplitters' 2020-21 campaign is here and first up is Newberry College, who LMU will face in a combined season and conference opener Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. inside B. Frank "Tex" Turner Arena.
 
How to Follow
Saturday afternoon's SAC matchup will be streamed live via SAC Live on Stretch Internet with the voice of the Railsplitters, Rusty Peace, providing play-by-play of the game. Live statistics of the contest can be followed by visiting LMURailsplitters.com. As usual, in-game updates will be available on LMU Railsplitter athletics' official Twitter account, @LMURailsplitter.
 
Presented by Brother's Plumbing and Electric and Buttery's Floor Covering, Saturday's tilt is the first of a shortened 22-game schedule due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
 
Limited Attendance
Due to the ongoing public health crisis of the COVID-19 global pandemic, LMU Athletics has a revised attendance policy for home basketball games during the 2020-21 season. Tex Turner Arena will have a limited capacity of 10% in an effort of promoting and prioritizing the health and safety of student-athletes and game day personnel. The following groups of individuals are the only permitted attendees for home LMU athletic events held inside Tex Turner Arena: student-athlete pass list designees, L Club members, 50 students, dignitaries and game day personnel. In line with LMU's COVID-19 policies and protocols, specific guidelines have been outlined to keep the health and safety of the LMU community the athletic department's top priority. For LMU Athletics' complete COVID-19 game day policies, please click here.
 
Railsplitters in SAC Openers
Since joining the now 13-team league prior to the 2006-07 season, LMU has gone 11-3 in SAC openers dating back to a 78-73 victory at Carson-Newman on Jan. 3, 2007, the Railsplitters' first ever SAC affair. Taking over the program in 2008, head coach Josh Schertz is 10-2 in conference openers.
 
Sports Return to Campus
After having its remarkable 2019-20 run abruptly halted due to COVID-19, LMU is more than eager to get back on the hardwood for competition. Saturday's men's and women's basketball doubleheader serves as the first home sporting event on campus since men's volleyball's straight-set sweep of Alderson Broaddus inside Mary Mars Gymnasium on the night of Wednesday, March 11.
 
National Recognition
Earlier this week, the Railsplitters were tabbed as the No. 2 team in the nation in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Preseason Top 25. With both depth and size being key themes for LMU's new campaign, the Railsplitters were picked to repeat as SAC champions and selected third in the Basketball Times NCAA Division II preseason top 20.
 
Hottest Team in College Basketball?
Coming off its best season in terms of winning percentage (.970), LMU owns the longest winning streak in all of college basketball at 32 games. The Railsplitters did not drop a conference game in 2019-20 (22-0) for its third undefeated SAC season in the last five years and went a perfect 17-0 at home to finish 32-1 overall. In fact, LMU has dropped just one game in the last 624 days and 385 days have passed since the Railsplitters' last defeat.
 
Preseason Accolades
Both redshirt senior guard Devin Whitfield, the 2020 SAC Tournament MVP, and redshirt junior guard Cameron Henry, the 2020 SAC Defensive Player of the Year, were selected as preseason All-Americans by Basketball Times. The all-region tandem also landed a spot on the preseasons All-SAC First Team and are two of the top returning players in all of Division II basketball. Whitfield has scored 1,541 points in his collegiate career, while Henry led the conference in steals (71) and was second in rebounding (8.0 RPG) last season.
 
Versus the Wolves
LMU is 24-7 all-time versus Newberry and has won 15 of the last 16 meetings, including a pair of dominant victories last season. The Railsplitters are 10-4 against the Wolves at home and head Coach Schertz is 21-5. In the two teams' most recent meeting last February, LMU clinched the 2019-20 SAC regular season championship outright with a 108-67 win over Newberry in Harrogate. The Railsplitters connected on 23 three pointers, the second-most in a single game in program history, tallied 33 assists on 41 made baskets and had two 30-point scorers. Senior point guard Anthony Brown became just the second LMU men's basketball player to record a triple-double, accomplishing the rare feat with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists. Whitfield poured in 30 points on 11-for-17 shooting and sophomore All-American guard Courvoisier McCauley scored a game-high 32.
 
About LMU Basketball
The second-winningest Division II program of the 2010's (.845), the Railsplitters have won 13 total SAC titles since 2011. Selected as the top seed and host of the Division II Men's Basketball Southeast Regional Championship four of the last six years, LMU has ended the season ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 three times in the last five seasons. The only school in Division II to have reached 30 wins in five of the last six years, the Railsplitters are one of only four Division II programs to have recorded 20 wins or more for 11-straight seasons. LMU has notched at least 25 wins and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament nine of the last 10 seasons. Inside Tex Turner Arena the Railsplitters have registered the second-highest home court winning percentage in Division II basketball since 2010-11, going an impressive 152-11 (.933). The 152 home victories are the most among Division II programs in the last 10 years as LMU has posted three perfect seasons in Harrogate during that time.
 
About Coach Schertz
Since taking over the Railsplitter basketball program, head coach Josh Schertz has amassed an astonishing 318-65 record over the past 12 seasons. Entering the 2020-21 season, Schertz' career winning percentage of .830 is the second-highest of any head coach in men's college basketball at any NCAA level (minimum 10 seasons). He also ranks second among active head coaches with at least 10 years at the helm – Jim Crutchfield, Nova Southeastern (.841) – after passing Gonzaga head coach Mark Few (.828) in 2019-20. On Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, coach Schertz reached his 300th career victory with a 76-64 conference home win over UVA Wise. Reaching the 300-win milestone in only 365 games as a head coach, the seven-time SAC Coach of the Year owns the second-most SAC victories with a phenomenal 200-36 (.847) league record.
 
About Newberry
Picked to finish eighth in the SAC's preseason poll, the Wolves are led by second-year head coach Jason Taylor. With a 10-12 league record and 14-15 overall mark in 2019-20, Newberry finished in a three-way tie for sixth place in the final conference standings before earning the No. 6 seed for the 2020 SAC Tournament where the Wolves fell 89-87 to third-seeded Catawba in the opening round. Newberry's starting lineup will look much different in 2020-21 with junior guard TJ Brown and junior forward QuanDaveon McCollum the only returning starters. Brown was the team's second-leading scoring last season with 13 points and 5.5 rebounds a game, while McCollum averaged 10.3 points and the second-most rebounds (6.7 RPG). Also returning for the Wolves is senior guard Marcus Ford, who scored 9.9 points per outing and shot 47.5 percent (58-of-122) from deep. Olney Central Community College junior transfer center Jason Cudd, who stands at 7-foot-1, played in 28 games at the SEC level for the University of South Carolina.
 
Looking Ahead
LMU hits the road for an early-week affair at Coker Tuesday, Nov. 24. Tip-off from inside the DeLoach Center in Hartsville, South Carolina, is scheduled for 8 p.m. The Railsplitters then return from Thanksgiving and begin a four-game homestand by hosting Tusculum University Saturday, Nov. 28 at 4:30 p.m.
 
LMU L Club
Register to become an L Club member today. All LMU L-Club members receive basketball season tickets with premium seating available through silver and platinum memberships. Additional membership benefits include discounts at community partner locations, exclusive e-mail communications, VIP basketball parking and Tex Turner Arena hospitality room access. Become an LMU L-Club member today by visiting LMURailsplitters.com.  
 
Stay Up to Date
Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms - @LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram, for complete coverage of Railsplitter basketball throughout the 2020-21 season.