This year, the Sacramento State men’s basketball team has many new faces. The team hired a new head coach and coaching staff and recruited 12 new players. There are still a few familiar faces left on the team, one of them is the Hornets’ returning lead scorer, senior guard Loren “Lo” Leath.

Leath is one of only four Hornets who have scored more than 1,000 points since the Hornets joined Division 1 play – Leath has 1,052 career points. He is also ranked first in Sac State’s Division 1 record book in three-pointers with 179. During the 2007-08 season, Leath averaged 13.1 points per game, and had 19 double point games. He was also among the Big Sky leaders as he was tied for fourth in steals, ninth in scoring and tenth in three-pointers.

“He can really shoot,” Head Coach Brian Katz said. “If he shoots open shots he’s really pretty accurate.”

Leath describes his play as “killer, like (Allen) Iverson.”

“When he’s on the court, he’s serious,” team captain Justin Eller said. “He doesn’t back down from any opponent and usually comes through in the clutch.”

The new coaching staff has adopted a new play style and Leath has come into his senior season needing to learn this new coaching system to help his new group of teammates adjust to play on the college courts.

“He has a high basketball I.Q.,” Katz said. “He’s actually probably further along (learning the new system) than most guys.”

Senior forward and fellow returnee Donald Thomas agrees with Katz on Leath’s high basketball I.Q.

“He’s really smart,” Thomas said. “With the system we’re in he really sets good screens, and when you get good screens in Katz’s system you usually get wide open shots.”

Coming into this season, Leath’s goals are the same as any season.

“My goal every year is to just get better,” Leath said.

Over the summer Leath worked on training his strength and quickness to help improve his game.

“I kept working on the basketball aspect, but really just wanted to get stronger and faster and work on my athletic ability,” Leath said.

His hard work hasn’t stopped, as Katz said he has been impressed with Leath’s improvement and his decision making on offense.

“I’m most impressed right now that he’s making an effort to defend and rebound. He worked on some things he needed to work on,” Katz said. “He keeps working and making good decisions offensively with the ball, I can see him ending up being a pretty formidable threat.”

On the basketball court Leath is serious, but off the court his personality and comical side comes out.

“He’s a good teammate overall. He’s really funny and likes to crack on all the dudes,” Thomas said. “He’s kind of the comedian of the group.”

“Lo’s a good teammate. Off the court he’s kind of more laid back, goofy a little bit, jokes around with the team; I like to have fun with Lo,” Eller said.

The Hornets’ men’s basketball team has a hard road ahead of it as the majority of the team is learning Katz’s new system. With leadership from Leath and the other returnees, Leath is optimistic about the season.

“We play real hard, we’re really focused on defense,” Leath said. “(The coaching staff) really nitpicks at certain things and that’s what we need. I think we’re going to do well.”

Felipe Molina can be reached at [email protected]