KANSAS CITY – Just seven players including three starters on this season’s roster touched the floor for Mules basketball last season. Five transfer students and a few new recruits have joined the mix this season to compete for spots in the Mules rotation.

The Mules are coming off a 20-10 season that ended in disappointment following a 5-game losing streak to end the regular season and an early exit in the conference tournament to Central Oklahoma.

“We were right there in the fight at 19-4, not just in the conference but regionally as well,” head coach Doug Karleskint said. “We just have to talk about it more as a team and preach getting better every day. We took a shot in the mouth last season, but in this league, you have to have a quick memory and flush some losses because you’re not getting through here undefeated.”

Central Missouri lost three regular backcourt players including two of their top three scorers in D.J. Richardson and Spencer Reaves. Senior Jakob Lowrance is the lone senior on the team and was the team’s second-leading scorer at 14.3 points per game last season.

Lowrance said he couldn’t be happier to play his final season for the Mules.

Photo by Kristine Hafford/For the Muleskinner

Senior center Jakob Lowrance is the Mules’ lone senior and top returning scorer averaging 14.3 points per game.

“It’s just everything coming together,” Lowrance said. “I always imagined I’d be a four-year guy when I was making my choice in high school. I couldn’t be happier with my choice to come here and getting to play my fourth year here.”

Lowrance said he is still working on becoming the leader Karleskint expects him to be.

“Coach expects a lot of me as a leader, as a guy who’s been here four years and one of the first guys he’s had here for four years,” Lowrance said. “I expect a lot out of myself as well. I don’t always know what to say, but I’m learning and my teammates are hanging in there with me through it.”

Karleskint hopes the addition of graduate transfer Jafar Kinsey from the University of North Dakota can bolster the Mules backcourt.

“We’re expecting big things out of him,” he said. “He’s a big strong guard that can score. He’s a guy that should get fouled and go to the line a lot just based on his build and how he plays downhill. We’re asking a lot of him defensively right now because of what he can do with his size.”

Kinsey is one of five transfer players joining the Mules this season, a route Karleskint took to fill holes quicker.

“In our case, losing three really good perimeter players put us in a position where we couldn’t really fill those holes with high school guys,” Karleskint said. “There’s a huge learning curve from high school to college and we needed that experience.”

Lowrance said that despite the new additions, the team has really come together.

“As a team this year, we’ve been meshing together super well,” Lowrance said. “This is one of the closest teams I’ve been a part of. It seems like we do almost everything together.”

The Mules were selected to finish fourth in the MIAA in both the coaches and media polls Tuesday at the conference media day in Kansas City, Missouri. Ahead of the Mules in both polls is Northwest Missouri State, Missouri Southern and Washburn. Northwest came in first in the media poll, while Southern took first in the coaches poll despite receiving one less first-place vote than Northwest.

“We’re going to continue to be that defensive-minded team,” Lowrance said. We’re going to get stops and play hard. This team, more than any other team I’ve been a part of, has been giving it everything they have in the practice we do have. It’s great to see and I think you’re going to see one of the hardest playing teams in the country this season.”

The Mules open their regular season at home against Harding in the Central Region Tipoff Classic. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 9 at the Multipurpose Building.