For the first time in 14 years, the men’s  basketball team will have players from St. Louis.

“We’ve tried and tried and tried, and I think we finally wore down some of the (high school) coaches out down there,” said Jones of his previous experience in recruiting players from St. Louis. “They (the coaches) kind of helped us out a little bit, and once we got the first kid, it kind of opened the flood gates. And we got a bunch of them. St. Louis was good to us this year.”

In addition to the those new players, Lincoln Land Community College’s men’s basketball team is full of experience this year, as there will be around 10 sophomores and six freshmen.

Last year’s team had four sophomores, and they lost in the first round of the Region 24 Tournament.

The team usually recruits players from Peoria to southern Illinois, Jones said. It is unclear how many players there are from St. Louis on this year’s team, as the roster was not publicized before this story was printed.

Jones is excited not only about these players, but also about all the incoming freshmen.

“We kind of have that group of savvy veterans, and then we got the talented young guys,” he said. “I think they (the freshmen) see that, ‘Hey, I’m pretty good, but those guys (the sophomores) are doing things a little differently than I am.’”

The freshmen will be learning under sophomores who played a lot of minutes last season.

Jones said that some freshmen could move into the sophomore-filled starting lineup.

“For just having that experience (from the sophomores) right out of the chute has to be the best advantage we have right now.”

In addition to these freshmen, Jones is optimistic about a transfer student.

The Loggers finished 15-16 last year. They allowed the ninth fewest point per game allowed (55.4) in the nation.

Jones, however, is worried about his team’s defense this year.

“We’re really going to struggle early in the year. … We will definitely have some defensive questions,” Jones said. “We have a lot of guys that are super aggressive, almost overly aggressive, and that kind of puts us in some sports where we kind of gamble a lot.”

Jones said he applies positive and negative reinforcement to try to improve the defense.

“At some point, the light bulb is going to come on that coach isn’t going to  give up on this. We need to start doing it this way. And usually goods things happen once we get to that point (where the problem is fixed).”

The Loggers season opener was on Sunday, Oct. 12 at Lincoln College.

Ryan Wilson can be reached at [email protected] or 217-786-2311.