GAME NOTES: The Convocation Center is the site of Monday night's clash between the Arkansas State Red Wolves and the Skyhawks of Tennessee-Martin.

For Arkansas State, this game marks the season opener for a squad that finished 19-13 a season ago overall and was 10-8 against the rest of the Sun Belt Conference. The team survived a sensational 116-114 four-overtime affair in the conference tournament in the middle of March versus Arkansas-Little Rock, but a day later saw the campaign come to a close with a lopsided 72-45 setback against Georgia State.

As for the Skyhawks, their season-opener was three nights ago when they locked up with Marquette in Milwaukee and bowed by a score of 79-63. The bad news for UT-Martin has the team playing just a single home game (Champion Baptist, Nov. 20) through the first month of the season, a stretch of nine contests.

With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, ASU is ahead by a count of 15-5, thanks to a seven-game win streak.

The Skyhawks trailed by just eight points at the break against Marquette at the BMU Harris Bradley Center in the opener, but the second half somewhat mirrored the first and the visitors were never able to close the gap. The Skyhawks were led by Deville Smith with 12 points, followed by Twymond and Alex Anderson with 11 points apiece. Before fouling out, Myles Taylor cleared a game-high 11 rebounds in the setback. The visitors shot only 4-of-13 out on the perimeter and suffered 19 turnovers on the night. It also didn't help that Martin sank only 12-of-22 at the free-throw line, even though a perfect effort would not have changed the outcome.

The Red Wolves don't have a single senior on the roster for 2014-15, with close to half the roster being made up of first- and second-year performers. The squad was responsible for an impressive 76.0 ppg a season ago, but there was only one player (Kirk Van Slyke) who started all 32 contests for ASU and he is not back this season. Van Slyke was responsible for 14.9 ppg and the other two double-digit scorers, Melvin Johnson (15.2 ppg) and Kendrick Washington (10.1 ppg) are also gone.

The rebuilding process will involve Cameron Golden, a mere 35.8 percent field goal shooter who was responsible for 7.6 ppg, and a bunch of players who have had very little experience with the Red Wolves to this point. Kelvin Downs (2.2 ppg) should also be in the starting lineup, but beyond those players there are several questions that need to be answered.

With so many unknowns, there is no telling where the season might take the Red Wolves, but it does not look very promising, even with the team playing at home on Monday night.