The Simpson men’s basketball team will be working hard to try to win the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title this season. The team lost six seniors from last years team. They will be looking to replace the scoring of Jason Soppe, Ryan Hittenmiller and Jason Parkinson, the team’s three leading scorers from last year. They combined for an average of 46.2 points per game of the team’s 74.3 points per game average.Wilson, who is in his 23rd season as head coach for the Storm, is looking for hard defense. “We are looking to get defense to create offense,” Wilson said. “We need to push the ball.” Practice started on Oct.15 and according to Wilson, the men are working very hard. “It is early, but I would characterize our team as competitive, intense, and hard working,” Wilson said. “I just need to find the guys who will continue to do those things.” Acording to Wilson, Simpson has a lone senior leader this year in Brennen Tubaugh. “Brennen is doing a wonderful job so far being a leader,” Wilson said. “He is highly respected by the other members of the team. He is a good role model, works hard, and has great character. I hope that all of the players grow up to be like Brennen.” Acording to Tubaugh, he is looking forward to a great senior season and playing with a great group of guys. “You can’t replace guys like the ones that we lost last year,” Tubaugh said. “We just need to come out every game and play as a team.” The Storm will look to three transfer students to contribute to the team this year in juniors Bryan Price, Jeff Schucker, and Aromeo Grigsby. All three of these transfers come from Arizona. “Our three transfers will definitely help us,” Wilson said. Tubaugh agreed with Wilson’s statement. “Our transfers are showing a lot of skill,” Tubaugh said. “We want to incorporate them into our program.” According to Wilson, the men will be looking for people who can make plays on defense. “We lost a lot of power with our two wings from last year,” Wilson said. “I think being able to play defense will be huge for us this year.” The men have big goals for this season. “We want to win the conference,” Tubaugh said. “We also want to show up and play hard every game, go out there and compete to the best of our ability, and hopefully make it to the NCAA Tournament.” Today the men face the University of Iowa in an exhibition game at 7:05 p.m. in Iowa City. “We will be able to learn quite a bit about our team in the game against Iowa,” Wilson said. “It is nice to play before the regular season games start. This will give us time to make adjustments because we have two more weeks before another game. I am really looking forward to playing against the University of Iowa, and I know the players are too.” Junior Chris Mars is looking forward to the season. “We have a lot of very capable guys on the team this year,” Mars said. “Practice has been going very well so far. It will befun to see who will step up and make the plays for us this year.” Tubaugh is looking forward to playing in some big games this year. “This year we get to play Grinnell at home,” Tubaugh said. “That is always a fun game. It is a different style of play, with lots of scoring. We also get to go to Elmhurst in Chicago and play some good competition.” Wilson feels that if the men continue to work as hard as they have been working at practice, they will find success on the court this season.