Army Team Report (Yahoo! Sports)

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:26:30 PDT

Hoping to ignite its first winning season in more than two decades, the Black Knights made a late-summer coaching hire, turning to Cornell assistant Zach Spiker after firing Jim Crews following an altercation with a player.

Spiker inherits one of the most promising teams in the Patriot League, a defense-first squad with experience. Seven seniors return, led by guards Cleveland Richard (12.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg), Marcus Nelson (4.8 ppg, 3.3 rpg) and Josh Miller (9.2 ppg, 3.3 rpg). Chris Walker (2.9 ppg, 1.7 rpg) is a 6-9 senior with starting experience.

A potential standout is guard Julian Simmons, who did most of his damage last season as a bench player, although he did start 12 games.