THOMASVILLE — After a record breaking year that saw the Night Hawks bring in a new head coach, the Thomas University men’s basketball team is gearing up for what they hope to be another successful season.

Since school started back, the Night Hawks have been hard at work in the gym and on the court. Perhaps the biggest positive for this TU squad is their continuity. The Night Hawks will welcome back 11 players from last year’s team.

“We still have a lot of the same culture and principles from last year’s team,” said head coach Colin Cotter.

Cotter was named the interim head coach before last year’s season began, though that didn’t stick for long. After a 9-2 start and going 4-0 in conference play, Cotter was made the official head coach as he continued his record breaking ways. TU won a school record 19 games last season, which included an 11 game win streak, and made the NAIA tournament where they were bounced in an extremely close overtime loss to LSU-Shreveport.

The Night Hawks also spent the most weeks receiving votes in the NAIA National Rankings at seven and had the best winning percentage in program history, finishing at .667.

Cotter was awarded the SUN Conference coach of the year and TU had several players named to the All-SUN Conference first and second team.

“I really liked our team last year and I was confident that we could have a good season and do a pretty good job. I just didn’t expect us to click so fast. I was really lucky to come into a good situation,” said Cotter. “I think the biggest thing we showed last year is how hard we played and how unselfish we were.”

TU is expected to field a team that plays hard and is unselfish this season and their preparation to do so has started early.

“We’ve been working really hard through out the entire preseason. As soon as school started we’ve been here,” he said. “Guys have been putting in work, playing pick up, lifting weights. We just started practicing so it’s been a little bit of a matter of implementing our principles and trying to get the new guys mixed in with the returners. It’s been good so far and we’re really excited to see what we can accomplish this year.”

The Night Hawks will be looking to conquer a new conference this year as they join the Southern States Athletic Conference. According the the NAIA, the Night Hawks first scheduled contest of the year will be against Florida College on October 26.