After losing their bid to the Big Sky Conference Tournament in the last week of the 2001-02 season, Jerome Jenkins and his Hornet men’s basketball team is set to make another postseason run.

The program added five new players , including two Div. I transfers. Jameel Pugh, a transfer from the University of Massachusetts, and E.J. Harris, a Washington State transfer will both have to redshirt this season due to NCAA regulations on transfers.

The Hornets also lost four players — Joel Jones, Joseth Dawson, David Joiner and Leo Cravey — to academic ineligibility. Jones will redshirt the entire season, while Dawson, Cravey and Joiner are expected to rejoin the team on Jan. 4, granted they qualify academically after the Fall 2002 semester.

“I’m very concerned in the preseason about a lack of depth,” Jenkins said. “It’s public knowledge, we have a couple guys ineligible. We are going to get through this adversity with flying colors.”

Jones and Dawson finished as the team’s top-two scorers last season.

High school recruit Deshawn Freeman and junior college transfers Emir Medunjanin and Djibril Diop will all make their Hornet debuts in the team’s opening game at Loyola Marymount on Nov. 25.

Freeman, a freshman from Saint Mary’s High School in Berkeley, will battle for time at the point guard position with senior Rashaad Hooks.

“I went after (Deshawn) myself to get him here,” Jenkins said. “We knew we needed a point guard and he was our No. 1 guy.”

Freeman averaged 6.5 points, 6.0 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 3.5 steals in two exhibition games.

“I had to get into the flow of the game,” Freeman said. “It was a lot different than high school, and it was a lot of fun.”

Hooks started at the point during the Hornets’ stretch-run last season, finishing second on the team in assists and steals.

Hooks recorded 11 assists and no turnovers in the Hornets’ final preseason game, a 97-76 pasting of their exhibition opponent, Tribe Called Sweat.

“Deshawn is quick,” Hooks said. “He puts a lot of pressure on the guards, and I just sneak up from behind and bring the trap.”

Redshirt junior Brandon Guyton will most likely start at shooting guard. Guyton, a transfer from Sequoias Junior College, will be the Hornets’ biggest outside threat after connecting on six 3-pointers in two preseason games.

Guyton will be backed up by Medunjanin, who spent last season playing for Schoolcraft Junior College in Livonia, Mich. Medunjanin averaged 5.5 points in the preseason, while shooting only 13 percent from 3-point range.

Dawson will most likely move into the starting role if he qualifies academically for the spring semester.

Derek Lambeth should get the starting job at small forward, where he has proven to be the team’s most fundamentally sound player. The senior boasts an array of post moves, and is also able to step back and knock down the outside shot.

Joiner and Cravey will both back up Lambeth if they qualify academically for the spring semester.

Jimmy White started both preseason games at power forward. While standing only 6-foot-6, he has the physical strength to bang in the post. White scored 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the Hornets’ game against Tribe Called Sweat.

“That’s what we were hoping for last year,” Jenkins said of White’s play in the preseason. “Sometimes it takes junior college players a year.”

Junior Cedric Thompkins, who will most likely serve as the Hornets’ sixth man, will back up White. Thompkins is one of the conference’s top rebounders, and at 6-foot-7 has proven to be a scoring threat in the post.

“We have to compete as a team,” Thompkins said. “Not one individual can take over.”

Tony Champion, a 6-foot-10 junior, will start at center after playing well in a Bay Area summer league. Champion has the size and athleticism to be one of the top big men in the conference. At times, however, he is held back by tentativeness around the basket.

Chris Lange and Diop will back up Champion. Lange is a 6-foot-8 freshman from Albuquerque, N.M., who is capable of knocking down the 3-point shot.

With three returning starters — Hooks, Lambeth and Thompkins — look for the Hornets to be able to make another run at one of the final three spots in the conference tournament.

“We have more unselfish players this year,” Hooks said. “Everyone wants to share the wealth. Everyone wants to win.”

Depending on how well the newcomers progress, and whether they get their three ineligible players back, the Hornets could make a run for the Big Sky Tournament championship. The winner of the Big Sky Tournament gets an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

“If we take it one game at a time and go all out every game, there is no telling what can happen,” White said.

Big Sky Preseason Poll

1. Eastern Washington

2. Weber State

3. Montana State

4. Montana

5. Portland State

6. Sacramento State

7. Idaho State

8. Northern Arizona