This Friday, the Auburn Tigers, in their first on-court appearance since playing in the Final Four in Minneapolis last season, will host Eckerd in an exhibition matchup at 7:30 p.m. CST in Auburn Arena.
While it's tempting for fans to write off exhibition games as "snooze fests," Auburn certainly isn't. It was just two years ago that Auburn lost to Division-II Barry, 100-95 in overtime.
This year, the Tritons carry a similar roster layout to that of the Tigers — a team with five freshmen and four seniors.
Auburn has a team with eight freshmen, headlined by the highly-touted Issac Okoro and seven seniors.
Since Eckerd created its basketball program in 1963, only two head coaches have been with the program. First was Jim Harley, who coached for 32 years before transitioning to a different role within Eckerd. Then it was Tom Ryan who coached his final season last year and is now the athletic director at Eckerd.
The Tritons will be led by former assistant coach Ryan Galuski this season, who graduated from Eckerd in 1998. Galuski was also an Eckerd basketball player. He led the team in scoring his senior season with 14.7 points per game. Galuski played a big role in the program's first-ever Sunshine State Conference championship.
Galuski had spent the past 14 years as the head men’s basketball coach for Greensboro college. Galuski ended his tenure at Greensboro as the winningest coach in the school's history.
Galuski will be taking over following a 19-10 season for Eckerd that ended with a loss to Barry in the (SSC) championship game.
Before working at Greensboro, Galuski was the assistant coach to Ryan from 1998-2005, where he was part of Eckerd’s first run to the Division-II Elite Eight in 2003. The Tritons made five trips to the D-II NCAA Tournament during his tenure as an assistant.
Following the departure of leading scorer Drushaun McLaurn, the Tritons will look to senior Myron Hagins, who was second in scoring last season.
Eckerd has players on the roster from Bulgaria (Kristiyan Stavev), Canada (O’Shane Taylor-Douglas), Dubai (Leonard Okiti) and Spain (Daniel Gonzalez).
Following the exhibition game Friday, Auburn takes on Georgia Southern at home Nov. 5.
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