CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — The long awaited anticipation for basketball is here, as the Brent Vernon era begins tonight. Campbellsville men's basketball welcomes Central Penn College to Tiger Town for a 7 p.m. ET tipoff in the Powell Athletic Center.

Fans can follow the game starting at 6:45 p.m. on the Campbellsville University Sports Network, 88.7 The Tiger (wlcufm.com) and www.CampbellsvilleTigers./watch, as Jay Turner returns for his eighth season as the Voice of Tiger and Lady Tiger basketball.

Vernon, who was hired in the summer of 2016 after long-time head coach Keith Adkins accepted another position, has another highly-ranked team to start the season. The Sporting News ranked Campbellsville No. 4 in the preseason and the NAIA Coaches' Poll ranked the Tigers No. 11.

Both teams are meeting for the first time, but Central Penn comes in with an 0-2 record to start its season. The Knights lost to University of Pikeville 79-59 on Monday night and against to Georgetown College 85-65 on Tuesday.

Campbellsville returns three key lettermen – Shawn Johnson, Elliott Young and Hagen Tyler - with all expecting to be in the starting lineup tonight.

Young, the lone four-year senior on the roster, has played in 99 games for Campbellsville while averaging about 7.5 points per game. Even though Young stands at 6-7, he can stretch the floor for forwards and drain the outside shot. In his freshman season, Young hit a career-high 41% from behind the arc, 40.6% in 2014-15 and 35% in 2015-16 as a junior. 

Shawn Johnson worked his way into the rotation last season as a sophomore playing in 403 minutes and averaging 12 mpg. 
Johnson shot 41 percent from the floor and averaged 4 rpg. and 4 ppg. He has earned a starting spot this year out of preseason camp 

Tyler is a rising star in the making that will earn the opponents' best defender. Last season, Tyler proved to be the second-best shooter in the NAIA hitting 111 3-pointers as a freshman. Once again the Tigers capitalized on NCAA D1 transfers. In the past two seasons, Campbellsville has had four D1 transfers that have turned themselves into NAIA All-Americans. Dii'jon Allen-Jordan and Sekou Harris both transferred to CU last year earning All-American honors. In 2014-15, D'Von Campbell (Rutgers) and Damontre Harris (South Carolina/Florida) led CU in scoring as well and earned All-American status.

This season, Kelton Ford transfers in from Troy, while Andre Applewhite started his career at Mississippi State. Kamall Richards (Xavier/Nicholls State) also transferred in and will be eligible after the fall semester. In addition, Rod Lawrence started his career at Ole Miss before transferring to CU last season. 


TIGER CLAWZ:
• In the past 13 years, Campbellsville has an 11-2 record in season openers.
• Out of the last 13 season openers only five have been at home - all wins. 
• The Tigers have five newcomers added to the roster this year and four that were on the team last season but redshirted. 
• Newcomers include - Kelton Ford, Andre Applewhite, Antonio Chapman, Jalen Coates and Kamall Richards. 
• Erik Kinney and Rod Lawrence were injured last season and picked up medical redshirts.
• Corey Shelton and Byron Dean both used a redshirt last season as freshmen. 
Last season, Campbellsville finished with a 25-11 record and 8-8 inside the ?Mid-South Conference. 
The Tigers played their way into the second Fab Four appearance in program history, but lost to MidAmerica Christian in the semifinals, 93-89. 
• Campbellsville lost four key seniors last year - Dii'jon Allen-Jordan, Ron Scott, Sekou Harris and Rob Robinson. Those four scored 1,848 points - which was ?61 percent of CU's scoring.
• The Tigers return the MSC Freshman of the Year - Hagen Tyler.
• Tyler scored 499 points and averaged 13.9 points per game last season. 
• Tyler ranked No. 1 in most 3-pointers last season with 111 - 11 shy of breaking the single-season CU record. 
• As a team, CU hit 341 3-pointers, which shattered the program record set in 2010-11 with 291.