RICHMOND, Virginia – The highly anticipated start to the 2023-34 McNeese Cowboys basketball season will tip-off on Monday night when the Cowboys visit the VCU Rams at 6 p.m. central time at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.
 
The game will broadcast live on ESPN+.
 
The Cowboys, under the direction of new head coach Will Wade, will be going up against Wade's former team which he coached in 2015-16 and 2016-17, guiding the Rams to an Atlantic-10 Conference championship and two NCAA Tournament berths.
 
But the hometown crowd will not get to see its former head coach on the sideline as Wade will miss the first of 10 games due to an NCAA suspension. Instead, assistant coach Brandon Chambers will get the duties against his alma mater.
 
McNeese, picked for a second place finish in the preseason SLC poll but the predicted recipient of the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament by most national bracketology pundits, returns All-SLC forward Christian Shumate who will be joined by a plethora of talented transfers, including TCU graduate shooting guard Shahada Wells, UMass and College of the Sequoias standout point guard Javohn Garcia and UTSA sophomore guard DJ Richards Jr., a member of last year's Conference USA All-Freshman team.
 
"We are excited to get playing," said Wade. "We have some really good players. I think we can score and play defense. Everybody is here for a reason. We just have to go out there and play."
 
Shumate will enter his junior campaign coming off a remarkable SLC Tournament run that saw him set a new tournament record with 41 rebounds in the three games. He led the team in both scoring (15.1) and rebounding (9.7) last season and topped the conference while ranking 11^th in the nation with 16 double-double games. He scored on a 26.7 clip with 13.7 boards during the league tournament.
 
"We got a lot of dimensions now," said Shumate. "We got a lot of guys who can do a lot more things. We have got a super competitive group."
 
Garcia will run the point in his first game as a Cowboy. The 6-3 junior is coming from the College of the Sequoias where he averaged 20.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists last season. He was named the California Community College Men's Basketball Coaches Association North Player of the Year while scoring in double figures in all but one game and netted 20 or more points 14 times. He signed with UMass out of high school and played two seasons, averaging just under 10 points in 40 games played with 15 starts.
 
Wells was named a first team preseason All-SLC selection despite being a newcomer to the league. A graduate transfer junior from TCU, Wells helped lead the Horned Frogs to a 22-13 mark last season and into the NCAA Tournament Round of 32. He scored double-figures 10 times in 35 games played, and had a high of 17 points in an 83-60 win at Kansas where he sank 7 of 8 shots from the field including 3 of 4 from long range.
 
McNeese will be making its first-ever trip to VCU, a place where Wade said will be the most rowdy place they play all season.
 
"It's going to be a hornet's nest," he said. "It will be an intense environment, very tough."
 
VCU is coming off a 27-8 overall record and a first place finish in the A-10 with a 15-3 mark. The Rams will be guided by first-year head coach Ryan Odum, who was named head coach after a successful two-year stint at Utah State where his team posted a 26-9 record last season and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
The Rams have a new roster look as well as none of the five starters from last season return.
 
The Cowboys will make their home debut on Friday at 4 when they host the College of Biblical Studies.
 
Projected Starting Lineup (2022-23 Stats):
PG – Javohn Garcia, Jr., 6-3, 183 (20.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 3.6 apg)
G – Shahada Wells, Gr., 6-0, 184 (5.9 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G – DJ Richards Jr., Soph., 6-4, 185 (10.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg)
F – Christian Shumate, Jr., 6-6, 213 (15.1 ppg, 9.7 rpg)
C – Antavion Collum, Gr., 6-9, 245 (13.0 ppg, 5.1 rpg)