Following last year’s dismal 4-22 record, the CSU East Bay men’s basketball program is undergoing renovations by adding new recruits in hopes of achieving success during the upcoming season.

Over the past five seasons, the Pioneers have not had many of the same players return to play consecutive years, said recent CSUEB graduate Will Freedman.

Freedman, the 6’5” forward who ranks 10th on CSUEB’s all-time scoring list and 6th in rebounds, also expressed that head coach Will Biggs is an “old-fashioned” guy who demands the highest level of performance from his players.

“If he feels like you don’t mesh with the chemistry of the team or that you are not performing to the best of your ability he replaces you,” said Freedman. “That’s just how he operates.”

However, some fans believe that Coach Biggs “old-fashioned” methods prohibit the team from generating any type of team chemistry due to a lack of cohesion.

Allen Williams, a CSUEB student and avid attendant of the basketball games, said the constant importing of new players may be the cause of the Pioneers lack of success.

“There’s clearly no faith in the players if every year our team is in rebuilding mode,” said Williams. “So the problem has to lie with the recruiting or coaching. Instead of trying to develop the team, we just replace them and hope the next batch will get the job done.”

Susan Bible, a writer for Hoopsworld.com, expressed similar sentiments about the importance of team chemistry on a basketball court.

“Chemistry is a much-talked-about aspect in attaining success in basketball,” said Bible. “When rosters undergo changes, either in the off-season or mid-season, that developed chemistry can be threatened.”

Despite the criticisms, CSUEB’s basketball team said they continue to remain optimistic about the upcoming season.

“We just recently changed divisions,” said Jurrell Turner, the newly transferred junior forward from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.  “It’s hard to bring a D3 school up to a D2 level and achieve success right away. Division 2 is a lot different from Division 3.  Records and statistics don’t accurately represent a team’s talent, they’re just numbers.”